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Article: Black square: beyond negation: Joseph Masheck on the reach of Malevich.
- Article from:
- Art Monthly
- Article date:
- July 1, 2007
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2007 Britannia Art Publications Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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As vital as it is, as no doubt the central strand in the afterlife of Suprematism, the legacy of Malevich's Black Square of 1915 sometimes seems more like an examination question than a matter of pressing aesthetic concern. Well, not this past spring at the Kunsthalle in Hamburg, where Hubertus Gassner produced a spirited response in curatorial practice. His 'Black Square. Hommage a Malevich' was consistent without being doctrinaire, and inclusive, even quirky, without letting its great theme dribble away.
For all its renown, Malevich's Suprematism, whose claims for the spiritual function of painting were offensive to the Stalinists and may still be to postmodern ...