The Black Square

The Black Square is a painting by Kazimir Malevich, one of the four, painted in 1915. Malevich declared it a work of Suprematism, a movement in Russian art between futurism and constructivism. He said that the painting is meant to evoke "the experience of pure non-objectivity in the white emptiness of a liberated nothing." There's nothing physical in it, no bodily experience, no real world. Or so the scholars say.

I remember a man sitting at a desk in a house above the polar circle. He is writing a letter to a friend living in New York, a totally different world, trying to describe what he sees through the window. The room is dark, only the desk lamp casts its yellow light over the table's surface. He stares at his reflection in the window. He's annoyed with the view, the annoyance can be heard in his voice. There's nothing to see except a big black void. He says the words several times over: "Deep black void." Silence presses on the window panes, trying to get in. Only it's already there, only the man's voice breaking it, each word getting fainter. 

This painting used to be a big black void when it was painted. Years of neglect left traces where the paint cracked. Something else started to seep in through the cracks. Something beyond the void...

Kazimir Malevich, The Black Square, 1915, oil on linen, 79.5 x 79.5 cm  / Črni kvadrat,1915, olje na platnu, 79.5 x 79.5 cm

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Črni kvadrat je slika Kazimirja Maleviča, ki jo je naslikal leta 1915, ena od štirih takih. Malevič jo je označil kot umetniško delo suprematističnega gibanja, ki je v ruski umetnosti zavzemalo mesto med futurizmom in konstruktivizmom. Rekel je, da naj bi slika vzbujala izkušnjo čiste neobjektivnosti v beli praznini osvobojenega niča. V njej ni nič fizičnega, nobene telesne izkušnje, ničesar iz resničnega sveta. Tako vsaj pravijo učenjaki.

Spominjam se moža, ki je sedel za mizo v sobi nad polarnim krogom. Pisal je pismo prijatelju, ki je živel v New Yorku, popolnoma drugačnem svetu od tistega, v katerem se je znašel sam. Poskušal je opisati pogled skozi okno. Soba je bila temna, samo namizna svetilka je metala rumeno svetlobo na mizo. Mož je strmel v svoj odsev v steklu. Pogled skozi okno ga je jezil, njegova jezo pa je bilo mogoče slišati v glasu. Ničesar ni mogel videti, razen velike črne praznine. Besede je ponavljal znova in znova: "Velika črna praznina." Tišina je, v želji, da bi prodrla v notranjost sobe, od zunaj pritiskala na okensko steklo. V resnici je že bila tam, samo možev glas jo je tu in tam razbil. Vsaka njegova beseda je postajala tišja.

Slika je bila velika črna praznina. Leta zanemarjanja so pustila sledi povsod tam, kjer je barva popokala. Nekaj drugega je začelo prodirati skozi razpoke. Nekaj onkraj praznine ...