Valery Valius. 2021

Square

It so happened that I talked a lot about pictures with the audience. I even classified them for myself according to the issues they raised. Sometimes such conversations happened not with the audience, but with strangers, when it turned out by chance that I was an artist. For example, on a train. Or in a workshop when buying materials for work or fixing equipment. In such cases, I presented myself as a modernist, on whom there is nowhere to put the stigma.

The most aggressive interlocutors usually began their conversation from Malevich's Black Square. Sure they drove me straight into a corner. In such cases, I asked what they want - to express their opinion about contemporary art or find out what I think about the Black Square? As a rule, they were interested in my opinion. Well, and I gave the lecture for about five minutes. I bring it to your attention.

At times, the dominance of academism in painting was very annoying to artists. And at the end of the 19th century, impressionism was born in France. With a scandal, but the audience loved him. Here, for concreteness, I called 2-3 names, no more, so as not to crush the listener with erudition and not be distracted from the main topic. In Russia, impressionism was also tried, but it was already discovered and there was no breakthrough. In the 90s I was at the exhibition of our avant-garde artists of the 1920s in the Russian Museum. In the first room were their early works. All as one were impressionists. I liked Malevich a little more than others. Strong artist.

Then he came up with Suprematism. In 1914 he exhibited the Black Square. Well, "supra" is understandable. It is super, over, full, supreme. "Matism" allows options. Or it comes from the word mathematician, there is mathematical analysis, mathematical software, the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics, etc. Then Suprematism is something like "the higher mathematics of painting." The majority of artists did not know higher mathematics and did not know how to depict it. They used geometry at the level of the school curriculum, in which they found the most suitable objects for the image. Triangles, circles, trapezoids ... The second meaning of "matism" is Russian mat (swear words). Then Suprematism is "complete obscenity." Well, it's for internal use, so to speak. It seems that the Suprematists knew what they were doing. And for the outside - "Suprematism", understand how you can.

A few years later, the country became Soviet, and great changes were taking place. Abroad, naturally, condemned changes. So the Black Square, as a symbol of the changes taking place in the country in general and in art, in particular, turned out to be quite appropriate.

But in the USSR, Suprematism did not take root. Our locomotive flew forward, gaining strength. And all sorts of innovators trying to run out of rank in front of the locomotive turned out to be inappropriate. Some were pushed aside, others were slowed down and crushed, some were released abroad. Some were corrected. And socialist realism flourished, attentive to instructions from above.

This was where my lecture usually ended. To the surprise of the listener, who expected me to praise Malevich and twist myself. And I said approximately what he wanted to dump on me.

But I would like to add something in the article.

Malevich had followers. Apparently the glory of the Black Square impressed them. How to beat him? Let it be not a square, but a cube! A transparent cube with a black floor. The edges are drawn in white. It will be like an artist's calling card. And the content of the cube can vary. For example, let there be a naked couple in love. No, let it look like they don't even have skin. And let both be men. Did you get it? You probably guessed that I am writing about Francis Bacon. Recently there was an exhibition of him in the Pushkin Museum.

Somehow in the 90s, at my exhibition, I was introduced to a young woman who had just graduated from either a trade institute or an economic institute. I asked if she had learned to trade in paintings. She answered yes. And seeing my surprise, she explained: "First you need to study the request." I thanked: “Thank you. You don't need to go further. "

Money was tight then. And I tried to sell my work alongside other artists on the street near the Central House of Artists. I sat there for a couple of days, it seemed boring, although not hopeless. And tiresome. Pack work, unpack, carry back and forth. I spoke with other merchants to partner up. They had their storage facilities nearby. They looked at the photographs of my works and explained: "No, we don't want to deal with author's works, they are badly bought." It was then that I first heard the expression " author's work." Somehow I did not think about the fact that there are others.

Currently, it is not a problem to find an artist who will copy any master or write something in his style. There are also workshops in which, using a computer and other equipment, they can transfer any photograph to the canvas. Imagine, "Nude" by Renoir, on canvas, in original format, with pixel accuracy on your wall at home! I finish on this bright note.