The Black Square

‘Kazimir Malevich and the Russian Avant-Garde’ is an exhibition now running at the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, as I was informed by the Financial Times today. One year ago I went to Moscow with a friend to see another friend. As the latter left when we arrived (it was planned a little differently, but anyway) we inherited his room in the Hilton Moscow Leningradskaya Hotel (that’s why we didn’t complain) which is located in one of those Stalinist style buildings called Seven Sisters. Like wannabe supporters of the opposition we had dinner in the Zhan-Zhak (Jean-Jacques) and we moved on with a bunch of Russians to the Mayakovsky Theatre nearby. We hardly ever felt more alive than we did out there in this Moscow night. The next day we went to the Tretyakov Gallery to see Malevich’s Black Square what I always wanted to do (a kind of Bucket list wish). And it took all away. The magic of Moscow. The feeling of infinitude. The sad, old Black Square which caused a scandal when Malevich showed 1915 in Petrograd. “All that we held holy and sacred […] has disappeared.”, as critic Aleksandr Benois lamented (taken form the FT). Sure, it was beautiful, but it was nothing against a Black Night in Moscow.

Malevich’s Black Square (Tretyakov Gallery)