Black Square
The artist
Kazimir Malevich, a Russian artist who wanted to invent a brand-new kind of art made of pure shapes and color.
What you see
A single black square painted in the middle of a white background, with nothing else in the picture at all.
The story
Malevich showed it in 1915 and called it a fresh start for art, a picture of feeling rather than of any real thing.
The style
He named this bold, simple style Suprematism, where art is built only from basic shapes and a few flat colors.
Look closer
Over the years the black paint cracked, and experts even found faint traces of an earlier picture hidden underneath.
Where to see it
One version hangs at the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow, Russia, where visitors come to see this famous square.
Fun fact
Malevich made several versions of the black square during his life, so more than one exists in the world today.