Green and black 1913

Kazimir Malevich made this piece, Green and Black, using ink and paper. Look at it: it’s all about the back and forth between black and white, solid forms, and open space. It’s like he’s thinking on paper, trying out different languages of form. I can imagine him, in his studio, puzzling over how to make a painting that’s not really a picture. I think that mark-making and this focus on the surface is something that other painters have done since, maybe influencing my own work too. There's such an open, playful quality. It's like he's saying, "What happens if I put this shape next to that line? What kind of energy do we get?" And then he leaves it up to us to figure out the rest. It's like a little poem, a little visual puzzle that invites us to play along.