Cubism & Early Abstraction · 1915
Black Square (1915)
Black Square (1915) (1915) by Kazimir Malevich. Its palette is led by white (#eff0ea, 48%) and soot (#111218, 37%). Overall the canvas is light, muted and warm.
Color notes
The black has cracked with age, letting earlier layers show through; X-ray studies found colored compositions painted underneath.
Malevich's Black Square (1915) was meant as a zero point for painting, color and subject stripped away. He went on to float pure colored shapes on white grounds in his Suprematist compositions.
Palette
- #eff0ea MG 205 white 47.9% of canvas
- #111218 MG 223 soot 37.0% of canvas
- #202126 MG 222 charcoal 11.2% of canvas
- #383537 MG 218 graphite 4.0% of canvas
Color families
Black 48%, White 48%, Gray 4%, Brown 0%, Blue 0%
Measurements
Composition
50% of the visual weight is in the right half, 51% in the lower half. Symmetry 0.86 (how closely its shapes and edges mirror each other). 44% of the canvas is calm space. Half of the detail sits in 23% of the canvas. Measured from the image, not a rule the painter followed.
Details
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More by Kazimir Malevich
- Red Square, 1915
- Suprematist Composition, 1916
- Suprematist Composition: White on White, 1918