Malevich - Cross [black]

A leading figure of the Russian avant-garde, Kazimir Malevich gave birth to one of the currents of abstraction, known as "Suprematism". He would therefore play a role in the evolution of modern art comparable to that of Kandinsky and Mondrian.

According to Malevich, the cross is the emanation of a square and "the representation of movement springing from within". This Cross was presented in December 1915, in the exhibition "0.10. Last Futurist Exhibition of Paintings" organized by Ivan Puni (Pugny) under the direction of Malevich at the Dobytchina Gallery in Petrograd. Also entitled Two Suprematist Planes in Orthogonal Relationship , it results from the cutting of the two parts of a square. The radical nature of this black shape painted on a uniformly white background is tempered by the slight distortion of its contours. The first Black Square is also hung there, like an icon, in one of the upper corners of the room. With his compositions reduced to essential forms, Kasimir Malevich manifests the need to transform both art and society.

Two Suprematist planes in orthogonal relation, called Cross [black], 1915
Plastic Arts Collection - Modern, Centre Pompidou