Black Square and Red Square 1915

Kazimir Malevich made this painting of two squares, one black and one red, maybe with oil on canvas or board—it’s hard to tell from here, but I can imagine him, brush in hand, making these bold forms appear. It feels like the start of a new alphabet, doesn't it? A basic vocabulary reduced to shapes and colors, like a child's blocks but fraught with serious intent. You know, when I look at that black square, slightly off-kilter, I can almost feel Malevich wrestling with it. Was he thinking about Mondrian, or maybe he was just trying to break away from the old ways of seeing? And that red square, floating there, feels so precarious. These simple shapes become monumental, full of possibility and challenge. It's like he's saying, "Here it is, the bare minimum. Now, what are you going to do with it?" That’s the beauty of painting, isn’t it? Artists keep pushing each other, responding, building on what came before. It's all up for grabs.