Suprematist Composition 1916

Kazimir Malevich made this painting, Suprematist Composition, and you can see it today in Tula, Russia. Just look at the geometry of it all! Each shape must have been carefully considered, tweaked, and placed in relation to one another. I imagine Malevich stepping back, squinting, and adjusting the angle of that black square, or the placement of that little red rectangle. What’s so cool about this piece is how it makes you think about the potential of painting itself. It seems to ask how the artist can communicate feeling and meaning using only the barest essentials. The slightly off-white surface makes the colors pop in a gentle way. That orangey circle in the middle seems to pull everything together, like a tiny sun in its own minimalist solar system. I see echoes of Mondrian and Kandinsky in the piece, this sense that painting can be a pathway to some higher spiritual plane. These artists are all in conversation, working through ways to find meaning. It's so inspiring for those of us who follow.