Malevich - Black Square - Paola Volkova, video series "Bridge Over the Abyss" (#12)

While making my research of Malevich for the remake of his page at the Russian Avant-garde Gallery, I have come across this very interesting video of a lecture by Paola Volkova, an acclaimed Russian art and culture historian and art critic. It is from a series of video lectures she made named "Bridge Over the Abyss", film #12, and it is dedicated to Kazimir Severinovich Malevich and his famous, much debated, Black Square.

I must say that I do not much care whether this interpretation is "correct" or not from an accepted point of view. I do not much care whether professionals in the field agree or disagree with Paola Volkova. But, for the first time in my life I personally have found someone, who has managed to make Malevich's art suddenly clear to me. In simple terms, with no loud and long incomprehensible professional terms, she has made it suddenly astoundingly clear and understandable. 

Thus, I have decided to share my discovery with those of you who may find it as interesting as I did, and perhaps, just perhaps, some of you will have a similar experience. I hope so.

The only obstacle was, that the film was made in Russian, and I wished to make it available to non-Russian speakers, as well. For this purpose, I have translated the film with subtitles in the body. Also, below the film you will find its transcript, made from the subtitles.

Enjoy.

Note: In case you are wondering how to turn the subtitles on - there is a small rectangular icon among the icons at bottom right of the video screen, which says "Captions". Click it.

I would like to tell you a bit about the Black Square and about his creator Kazimir Severinovich Malevich, who was born in Kiev in 1878 and died in St.Petersburg in 1935. And this is just wonderful. Not that he has died in 1935, but that he did not live to see 1937 and has died in his own bed.

I must say that this time-frame, the late 19th - early 20th centuries, is a time of extraordinary uplifting of all spiritual forces in Russia. Absolutely all of them. Both angelic and demonic.

It was a kind of break-through. The Russian Renaissance. The Russian rebirth. And into the gap poured the nation's genius. Along its history, Russia at that time has opened a window into Europe, a window into the world.

Dear God, what a time it was! what names! Such as Larionov, Goncharova, the artists of the Jack of Diamonds, Konchalovsky, Falk, Mashkov, the Russian Cesannism. Like the artists of the Golden Fleece, such as Pavel Varfolomeyevich Kuznetsov, Saryan. What an amazing bouquet of names, which was so surprising for Russia itself. Russia has surprised herself so. But she has also surprised a great area around her.

She surprised it with Dyagilev's enterprises, the discovery of Russian art. She surprised herself with these cultural processes which were occurring in her. Why? Where do they come from?

Consider for example one detail, very simple and uncomplicated: beginning from the Roman Empire and until the invention of, say, the automobile, or another type of transportation of a different speed, Man views the world from the same type of motion, the same time, the same space. Whether it was the Romans riding horses; or the 19th century riding horses, it is the same rhythm of travel. The same pictures. The same optics of perception and examining of the world.

It only begins to change at the very end of the 19th century. And when cars begin to move about, when trains begin to move fast, when God save us, dirigibles begin to take off, or airplanes, it completely changes the point of perception and the viewpoint. It is a new consciousness, a new concept about the space you live in, a different concept of time. It is not by chance they call themselves Futurists, - meaning - people looking to the future, futurum.

And so this new explosion of thought, of time-concept, of course, Russia was in turmoil, but not just in turmoil: it created this avantgarde group of these philosophers and courageous people, searching for a new language.

Kazimir Malevich had, what we may call, his own company. It was Velimir Khlebnikov, it was the poet Kruchenykh, it was the artist Ivan Puni, it was the wonderful artist, wife of Kruchenykh, Rosanova.

And they have decided to create such an opera, (particularly an opera) with a very loud, poster-like name 'Victory Over the Sun'. Well, naturally, if it's a Victory, it must be over the Sun! And Malevich was painting the decor.

Especially interesting was the décor for 2nd scene in the 2nd act. Malevich had painted the backdrop. On this backdrop different figures were drawn, and among them there was a large black square.

Something has clicked in him. Something astounded him, when he saw it. He took the backdrop off That which was drawn on it he painted over with white. And there was against the background of this great white canvas a large black square.

Malevich was so astounded by his own work as he said, intuitive, from the excitement, from the realization of what he has done, from the realization of this work he has taken ill. He was in a state of such shock that he developed a fever. For several days he could not drink, nor eat, nor sleep. was in a feverish state, having always been a very psychologically stable person.

He names this art of his Suprematism. What does Suprematism mean? Why does he call it thus? It is dominant art. Suprem - dominance. Suprematism. Dominance. Dominance of what? Dominance of color.

I can tell you that many artists had color dominants. Many artists in the world had color dominants. Like Matisse - such color dominants, Van Gogh - such color dominants!

His approach to color, his concept of color dominance, is different in its very essence from the color concept which has existed previously and I would say, before the black square. Because color has always been tied to some sort of theme. Color, in this way or another, either with the Cubists or the Futurists, but it was somehow tied to some form. With Malevich, color loses its connection to form.

From this moment he begins working on this new, entirely his own idea of depicting color-forms. So Suprematism is depicting, on the flat canvas, of color-forms.

What is the meaning of "color-form"?

Malevich claims that color, in itself, disassociated from any object, whether a cup, a spoon, a head or a dog; color - black, red, white, blue, yellow, on its own possesses independent content. The color possesses independent content.

What kind of content? Energy content.

Color, even Van Gogh understood this, but he simply created different subjects, but Malevich says that color has its own, energy content. Some colors are more active. some colors are less active. But colors have content.

I will give you a curious example: The original Black Square I have myself seen a single time in the Tretyakov Gallery storage rooms. I was astonished. Especially as it is not exactly square, it is not totally black, and the white is not totally white, and it is somewhat non-square, everything a bit... But when you look at it – it appears to be square.

Malevich has made himself three or by other count, four copies. Made the copies of Black Square himself. And not a single time. never again, could he repeat that energy power which was present in the first. He couldn't, never managed. And he made these copies himself! But to achieve that powerful radiance of black on white, the very active form of a square, the white form just as active, the black on white, as maximum symbols of color-form activity.

This has become the beginning of a new artistic alphabet. The previous artistic alphabet was created by Giotto: art as a theatre, art as action. Art, as an artistic world, described in some way. Even the Futurists, they too described it. But here no-one describes anything. It is the energy of color-forms. It is a different artistic language.

It doesn't eliminate the previous one. It never eliminated it and doesn't do so now. It exists in parallel.

Where does this idea come from? What is it? He was enlightened. Was it born just in him? Has it come into him accidentally, and there was never anything like it? Or does it have precedent?

It does have precedent. And I shall tell you of this precedent.

This precedent is way back in the past. A forgotten past. And it originates, no more no less but with the very ancient Chinese artistic constitution or artistic alphabet which the Chinese themselves call Ba-gua. This was China of the 3rd century BC states that everything which exists in this world is a union of the Sky and the Earth. And there are two main concepts: there is the concept of Sky, and there's the concept of Earth. It is the origin of everything.

The Sky is always depicted as a sphere or a circle. Why? Because the Sky has no beginning and no end. And a figurative symbol of a concept with no beginning and no end is a circle.

The Sky, as a circle, may be one of two colors: it may be blue, the color of water, the color of life-giving moisture; or it may be black, because any maximum concentration of light is black. And Sky is the highest concentration of light. Therefore, the Sky is drawn by blue circle, as the element, or a black circle, as essence.

Likewise, the Earth possesses completely different properties. If the Sky is immeasurable, it is without beginning or end, the Earth is always measurable. It has: 4 seasons. It has 4 directions: North, South, West and East. It is a square. Because it has 4 equal sides.

And, like the Sky, it may be of two colors. What color is the Earth in China? Yellow. What color are the Chinese? Yellow. And so their Earth is yellow.

If the element of the Sky is water, then the element of the Earth is Fire. Therefore is may be a yellow cube or square, or a red cube or square.

But each of these essences is dynamic. For example: a dragon, which is a zoomorphic depiction of Sky, is red in China. And on the New Year celebration they carry a red dragon. Thus it is a dragon taking on itself the color of the Earth, the element of the Earth - Fire.

In the same way the Earth may take upon itself the color of the Sky. It may take the black color, becoming a black square. As the highest concentration of something, fall into the abyss, light, whatever you like.

Read Malevich's late works and you shall see the great attention he pays to ancient Chinese philosophy. Especially to daoism. He gives direct instructions himself: I am not saying he copies it. I am saying this was a 'eureka'. It was a school. It was a precedent.

The same way the Classicism even Picasso there is a precedent - the antiquity culture, in the same way Malevich's innovative idea called Suprematism has a precedent in the ancient Chinese Ba-gua school.

And what does black-on-white mean to the Chinese? The White is not white, it is Dao. It is no beginning and no end. It is EVERYTHING, absolutely everything. And nothing. It is the origin of everything. It is the pro-matter, a pro-image, which encompasses everything.

His works of the white-on-white period you know, these works have shaken me to the core. And I think - anyone. For the white-on-white one cannot even describe it. It is painting of such high class, painting of such mastery that he paints in white. How does one paint white? How does one paint a white cross on white? This primal, eternal symbol of a cross which has divided itself from the white Dao One stands frozen, shaking, because this is true painting.

Malevich writes of himself: 'I have come out into zero form'. And he has indeed come out into zero form. He began it all from the beginning. He offered...

What? He stole it all from the ancient Chinese?

No. But he implied it. He knew about it. He knew about it and he wrote about it, but in his own language and his own works.

And now we shall go on. Because as in ancient China so in Malevich's works the new alphabet was discovered to possess such wide a spectrum of application that it is unimaginable.

Because as soon as he made color non-objective and began to study the properties of color, with respect to aesthetics, medicine, psychology, energy; or those of form, - a completely different mechanism was engaged. Completely different levers were activated.

One of his experiments he came up with, it was very interesting. In a relatively small space he made partitions. And there he placed, say, typists. 1,2,3,4. About 4-5 typists. And they had to type something. Some important papers, not just anything. He took jobs for the Union of Writers, or medical workers.

And then he made a timetable. One partition was painted in red, another - in stripes, a 3rd - blue, a 4th - yellow, a 5th - green. And he would write: Maria Nikolaevna will have a runny nose in 6 hours. Elena Mikhailovna will start coughing in, say, 2-3 hours.

He was studying the influence of color environment, - the color, the 'color-form' in which the typist is working, on her psychology and her physical well-being.

What an experiment, how important it is for medicine!

This man consists solely of brilliant discoveries.

He has works on the properties of the color white. How the white color is dangerous in hospitals, influencing the patient psychologically, intensifying pain. That white in such large quantities is very dangerous for medical institutions. And thus uniforms the color of malachite, accepted worldwide.

I'm not even speaking about what you all know, the meaning of our railroad worker's orange coat, which they use when fixing tracks, working on roads. And who has made that coat? The so-called 'Prozodezhda' on which Malevich worked. Industrial clothes.

That orange color, which he has defined for this coat. No-one will hit them, because it is clear: the color is like form, it shows - work is in progress here. He made that coat.

He does research, as I have already told you. A different kind of research: that of color ideas. The black square is his formula. A statement. Behind it stands a school, development of the Suprematism ideas.

What has the idea of his school consisted of? What was his school's purpose?

The reasoning was that he has, correctly, assumed, VERY correctly assumed, he looked high and saw far, and absolutely correctly assumed that the era of individual perception is over. That the 20th century is a century of mass culture.

And through his new Suprematism language he began creating forms of mass culture, industrial culture. For example: the great, great man, El Lissitsky. But we no longer remember what Lissitsky has done. And yet we all use for a long long time that which he has done.

Lissitsky was the man who has transformed the book. The books Lissitsky has made - are an amazing thing. He approached them as a single architecture-like project. He considered a person taking the book in his hands and looking at the cover perceiving the entire content of the book. His fonts are placed in a new way.

These are people, who used Malevich's new alphabet, the color-form alphabet, to expand into a new area. Today this new area is called design.

I am not talking about the fact that Nikolai Suetin Malevich's closest and most favorite student, was the head artist of Leningrad Porcelain Factory; that Malevich created in porcelain. He created new forms of teapots, faience, for mass production, for all working people. Let's see you try today buying a teapot, created from forms made by Malevich, which are held at the Leningrad Porcelain Factory. And they are kept there. And to this day they make from them -what do they make? Expensive gifts.

So all his pupils apply themselves in a wide variety of areas of the new aesthetics. The new aesthetics offered to the world the era of mass consciousness, the industrial century. when this color-form now makes the basis for building any space, any interior.

So what is this? We have here such a phenomenon and are still arguing, whether the black square is or isn't nonsense.

What difference does it make what anyone thinks on this matter?

None whatsoever.

The only important thing is what this figure of Kazimir Severinovich Malevich signifies.

I must tell you that in the late years of his life, in the 1930s, he has returned to Realism. He painted these realistic portraits in beautiful dress, these designer-clothes. I often look at these portraits, thinking how feminine the fashion is, how brilliant.

All these portraits and works, the manner of their execution, are marked with this incredible perfection. He makes perfect images. Be it Suprematism, or Realism, or his Impressionist works - they are always perfectly made. It is no surprise they are often compared to icons as perfect objects of painting.

One of the most wonderful works of his late period is his famous self-portrait. Where he has depicted himself as a Renaissance artist. He has even painted himself dressed in these clothes, and a beret and such a facial expression: you are seeing before you a Renaissance artist. And even the texture is like a fresco.

That's right! A self-portrait is always that which the artists thinks about himself. And Malevich is saying: I am their equal! I am Giotto's equal, I am Mantegna's equal. He paints himself in the style like a late 15th century artist.

And he is right! He WAS their equal. He was a widely developed man. Like them, he was a man of his times, and a man of the future, who led his culture toward the future.

Only it's difficult for us to evaluate it, because we understand who Mantegna is or Giotto but Malevich - barely.

He was a school. He was a man, I repeat, who offered a new language for totally new civilization conditions.

I would say it more loudly: Malevich was brilliant, a brilliant individual.

Absolutely.

And the fact that we do not value it, do not appreciate it even now, that is our trouble. It's our mentality.