A self-taught artist, Kazimir Malevich's early works, created while still a teenager, incorporate the style and motifs of
He … See more

Malevich created the first version in 1915 using broad strokes of thick black oil paint onto a 79.5cm x 79.5cm linen canvas. The border and edges were applied with various shades of white and grey paint.
Malevich w… See more

Black Square is widely regarded by art historians as foundational in the development of both modern and abstract art. Malevich said the paintings began the Suprematism movement, which emphasised colour and … See more

Avant-garde art fell from favour after Joseph Stalin took absolute control of the USSR in the late 1920s. Stalin was notoriously suspicious of people who traveled outside the Soviet Union, and Malevich came to the attention o… See more

The painting has degraded considerably since its creation. According to the American art critic Peter Schjeldahl, "the painting looks terrible: crackled, scuffed, and discolored, as if it had spent the past eighty-eigh… See more

• Blanshard, Frances Bradshaw. "Retreat from Likeness in the Theory of Painting". New York: Columbia University Press, 1949
• Drutt, Matthew. Malevich, Black Square, 1915. New York: Guggenheim, 2003. ISBN 978-0-8920… See more