Black Square (1915) – Still influential on Modern Art

The Black Square is a mysterious but easily overlooked painting by Kazimir Malevich made in 1915 that hangs at the Hermitage Museum in the “Hidden Treasures” gallery reserved for master Impressionist painters such as van Gogh, Renoir, Degas and Cezanne. It’s just a simple monotone square that looks nothing like the other elaborate works – So why is it there? Why did Stalin hate The Black Square? Why is this painting still influential today?

These are the secrets we reveal on January 12 on History Television when Museum Secrets: Inside the State Hermitage Museum airs.

For now, to gain further insight into the contemporary American art that The Black Square influenced, watch a video produced by the Gagosian Gallery in Manhattan. Curator Andrea Crane discusses their 2011 exhibit “Malevich and the American Legacy:”