Tilburg University

Tilburg School of Catholic Theology

Master Christianity and Society 2021/2022

Faceless Icon
Theological meaning of the “Black Square” painting of Kazimir
Malevich

Student: Bozidarka Bozic-Eduard (U919005)

Supervisor: Frank G. Bosman
11.07.2022
 Contents

Introduction ............................................................................................................... 2

1. Artist and Mystic Kazimir Malevich (1879-1935) and his understanding of icons ... 9

2. Russo-Byzantine revival and iconic presentation- political, religious, and artistic

perspectives ........................................................................................................... 12

2.2 Search for the authentic Russian Orthodoxy ..................................................... 13

2.3 The avant-garde artists and iconic presentation ................................................ 14

3. Theology of Icon in Russian Orthodoxy............................................................... 17

4. Icon and the Black Square - text-immanent communication ................................ 20

5. Black Square in the context of The Last Futurist Exhibition 0.10 (St. Petersburg

1915)………………………………………………………………………………………...22

6. Black Square in the context of Rothko Chapel (Houston, Texas 1971) ............... 25

6.1 Disenchanted West - the birthplace of the Rothko Chapel ................................ 28

6.1.1. Chapel’s authors - De Menils and Rothko ..................................................... 29

6.2 Visitors on Rothko Chapel – their place to feel and search ............................... 31

Bibliography.......................................................................................................... 38

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 Introduction

Malevich's Black Square is one of the most famous abstract paintings in the world.
It is considered to be an icon of the modern art marking a new era in the international
artistic culture at its' very conception. In the first public showing, Black Square
assumed the icon corner and raised quite an amount of questions, outrage, and
criticism.1 Despite or exactly because of it, Malevich will play on the iconic reference
of this particular painting until his very funeral: emphasizing that the Black Square for
him, has a somewhat religious meaning. Black Square's iconic reference will become
a subject of academic debate only in the past two decades. Up until then, holy art of
iconic painting and abstract art was always perceived and studied as directly opposite
to one another: religious vs. secular, traditional vs. modern, and spiritual vs. self-
righteous. But paradoxically, the research will show, that while the avant-garde artists
were openly denouncing the ways of conventional religiosity at the same time the icon
painting tradition strongly resonated in their works. This connection is most strongly
identifiable and present in the abstract Suprematism of Kazimir Malevich. 2 In the past
decade, art historian authors such as Maria Taroutina, Myroslava Mudrak, Alexandra
Shatskikh and Andrew Spira3 had researched, examined, and evaluated the spiritual
resonance of icons in Malevich's work. Thanks to their efforts we can see how hidden
and absurd at first sight, the empty Black Square borrows in its' essence from the very
essence of Orthodox icon. These authors are suggesting how, in the artistic sense,
Black Square can be understood as the most successful avant-garde attempt to
represent transcendent, while using the expressive language and dogmatic meaning
of the Orthodox icons.

1 Shatskikh, 9.
2 Andrew Spira, The avant-garde icon: Russian avant-garde art and the icon painting tradition
(Lund Humphries, 2008), 8.
3 Spira, “The avant-garde icon”; Shatskikh “Black Square”; Myroslava Mudrak, ”Kazimir

Malevich and the Liturgical Tradition of Eastern Christianity”, in Byzantium/Modernism: The

Byzantine as Method in Modernity, ed. Roland Betancourt, Maria Taroutina, (Koninklijke Brill
NV, 2015), 37-72.; Maria Taroutina, The Icon and the Square: Russian Modernism and the
Russo-Byzantine Revival, (The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2018)

2
 Looking at the Black Square painting (Figure 1), one will see exactly what the title
denotes: a square painted in black on a white background, which is also a square.
With dimensions of 79.5 x79.5 centimeters, Black Square is a relatively small painting,
executed on oil in linen, painted in 1915. Today, there are 4 original examples of the
same painting made by the author between 1915 and 1935. All are slightly different in
size and executed in different material but present the same image. Tretyakov Gallery
Moscow owns three paintings and State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg one.

Figure 1- Kazimir Malevich, Black Square, 1915, oil on linen,79,5x79,5 cm, Tretyakov Gallery Moscow
(source Wikipedia)

Because the author preferred to make again new painting instead send the old one
to the new exhibition, all four Black Squares today are painted by the very hand of
Kazimir Severinovich Malevich - a Pole born in Ukraine who became a great Russian
artist. His roots together with his multilingual upbringing and nomadic childhood have
armed him with unique immunity from locking himself in any particular national or
religious framework. Instead, his life as reflected in his writings and art was turned to

3
reality as a whole, omnipresent as here and beyond.4 Malevich painted the Black
Square against the backdrop of both world and civil wars, social revolutions, and the
emergence of authoritarian governments and their harsh policies. Despite social
upheavals, Malevich was able to fully realize his artistic potential. And yet, destiny
seemed to retaliate against him by hiding his ground-breaking efforts for decades.
After his death, there was no artist named Kazimir Malevich in the Soviet Union until
the late 1980s.5 The West only knew the few works that had come to the United States
in the 1930s until the late 1950s and early 1960s.6
After it has been re-discovered numerous researches concerning its’ artistic
properties, origin, inspiration, meaning, and influences on modern art have been
undertaken. In the past two decades, due to the effort of art historians, a strong
influence of the traditional art of iconic presentation has shown its resonance in the
Black Square painting. On the other hand, from the theological standpoint inquiries of
the meaning of the Black Square have been almost absent, both in the East and in the
West.

Research Questions and Methodology

This paper aims to mend this gap by answering the question: what is the theological
meaning of the Black Square painting?
In the case of such a highly abstract piece of art, this poses significant challenges.
This is, even more, true if one has in mind how the painting has been, through time
and worldwide used in many different contexts: being part of differently themed
exhibitions, for example, that ranged from the history of icons to communistic
propaganda. Or in a case when it inspired another artist who re-interpreted it in their
own way, such as Ad Reinhart, Piet Mondrian, and Mark Rothko did.
For this reason, it is important for theology to engage in the task of answering those
questions, especially in a case when art translates and interprets traditional

4 Alexandra Shatskikh, Black Square, Malevich and origin of Suprematism, trans. Marian
Schwartz (Yale University Press, 2012), 3.
5 Ibid, 10.

6 Yve-Alan Bois, "The Availability of Malevich", in Malevich and the American Legacy,

Malevich, K.S., Y.A. Bois, M. Dabrowski, and A. Shatskikh. (Prestel Publishing, 2011), 21.

4
Christianity in such a radical way. The understanding gained from such research adds
insight into how is this re-interpretation consistent with current modes of experience of
both religion and culture. Especially this is true today when the diverse cultural and
religious practices of the world are encountering and influencing one another more
regularly and rapidly than ever before. To be able to identify the theological meaning
and the changes that occur due to the different context the painting finds itself we will
use the methodology of the Communication-Oriented Analysis (COA) of the texts. This
method makes a strong distinction between the text-immanent communication within
the textual world (text-immanent author to the text-immanent reader) and the
communication happening in the real world, i.e. text external communication between
real author and real reader. Within the text exists a textual stage, (which contains
characters, décor, and props), where characters interact under the control of the text-
immanent author for the benefit of the text-immanent reader. The implied author and
implied reader, who create and guarantee the socio-historical paradigm shared by the
real author, text-immanent author, text-immanent reader, and possibly, but not
necessarily, individual real readers, negotiate communication between the textual
world of the text and the real world outside the text. (Figure 2)7

Figure 2- Schematic overview of the basic structure of the communication-oriented analysis methodology in Bosman

These distinct communication levels are present in texts regardless of whether they
are written or spoken. In reality, all cultural products of expression can be viewed as
texts that can distinguish between any of these three different communication levels.
In the painting, as an example, the "real author" of every painting is its’ historical
painter. The "real reader" is the person who has seen the painting. The "characters"

7Frank G. Bosman, “There Is No Order in Which God Calls Us”, Journal for Religion, Film and
Media, 8/1 (2022): 105–128, doi:10.25364/05.8:2022.1.6, 107.

5
in the artwork are the depicted figures, who interact with one another. A painting-
immanent director, also known as a "text-immanent author," in the painting allows the
painted figures, or characters, to assume their positions. The "text-immanent reader,"
or "painting-immanent viewer," is the one who receives the message from the "text-
immanent author," or "painting-immanent director."8 Within the painting itself, there is
a level of communication that is independent of the world outside of it.
In this regard, the Black Square painting presents itself as a challenge. Because of
its’ specific, highly abstract nature that lacks any distinguishable object, both the text-
immanent author and text-immanent reader as the main actors in the text-immanent
communication cannot be identified easily. For this reason, our analysis will rely
heavily on the implied author and implied reader of the original context as they are the
closest mediators between the real historical author, text-immanent author, and text-
immanent reader.
As the theoretical framework, this paper will rely on the theology of culture of Paul
Tillich. His ideas and publications in the area of cultural theology are a compelling
assertion of the persistence of religious significance in modern culture as well as the
cultural significance of religion in modern times. Contrasted to the ‘theology of church’,
which interprets materials that belong to the explicit religious sphere, Tillich’s ‘theology
of culture’ looks for the religious substances present and persistent in other areas of
human life, such are science, politics, art, etc. This religious substance, according to
Tillich could be found in every cultural phenomenon where questions of existential
meaning are addressed.9 Religion as ultimate concern is the meaning-giving
substance of culture, and culture is the totality of forms in which the basic concern of
religion expresses itself. In abbreviation: religion is the substance of culture and culture
as a form of religion. Such a consideration prevents the establishment of a dualism of
religion and culture. Every religious act, not only in organized religion but also in the

8 Frank G. Bosman and Archibald L.H.M. van Wieringen, “Reading The Book of Joseph A
Communication-Oriented Analysis of Far Cry 5”, Journal for Religion, Film and Media, 7/1
(2021): 145–171, doi: 10.25364/05.7:2021.1.8, 145.
9 Frank G. Bosman, Gaming and the Divine A New Systematic Theology of Video Games,

(Routledge,2019), 26.

6
most intimate movement of the soul, is culturally formed.10 Especially art is, according
to Tillich, the part of the culture in which the origins of civilization are most readily
apparent. Art and artists express the spiritual circumstances of a specific period by
showing the discourses and practices that re-enact the ultimate. Tillich sees artistic
production as a philosophical/cultural reaction to the Unconditional: the artist seeks to
reduce mythological powers to the absolute principle of being in a specific form
through artistic creativity. They try to contain the overwhelming flood of the
Unconditional in a conditioned form.11 Art’s religiosity is not determined by the
presence or absence of a religious theme in it, instead, it is its expressivity and
openness to the ultimate that makes it religious.12
The first part of our analysis will concern the text-immanent communication of the
Black Square painting starting with Kazimir Malevich as a real historical author and
focusing on his relationship with religion and the tradition of iconic presentation. In the
next step, to get as close as possible to understanding the communication between
text-immanent author and text-immanent reader we will expand our investigation to
the socio-historical paradigm in which Malevich was painting. In this part of the paper,
we will, focus on the ongoing process of the revival of the Russo-Byzantine heritage –
explore the general state of the Russian pre-revolutionary state, the place of the
religion within the society, avant-garde artist circles, and the theology of icon within
the traditional orthodox cannon. This research will provide us with more extensive
knowledge of the implied author and implied reader as the paradigm in which the
painting has been made and bring us closer to the text-internal communication of the
Black Square painting.
In the second part, using the same methodology we will explore the changes in
communication that occur due to recontextualization - the case when the text is
repositioned in another context. In this part of the research, we will not be concerned

10 Paul Tillich, Theology of Culture, (Oxford University Press, 1959), 42

11 Russel Manning, “A kind of metaphysical dizziness.” Tillich’s Theology of Culture and the
Encounter with “non-art”, in Paul Tillichs Theologie der Kultur: Aspekte- Probleme-
Perspektiven, ed. Christian Danz & Werner Schüßler, (De Gruyter, 2011), 6.
12 Wessel Stoker, Where Heaven and Earth Meet: The Spiritual in the Art of Kandinsky,

Rothko, Warhol, and Kiefer, (Rodopi 2012), 15.

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with the text-internal communication of the Black Square but will explore it from the
position of the real readers that have seen the painting in a different context. From the
COA perspective, the recontextualization of the text does not affect the text's internal
communication between the text-immanent author and text-immanent reader but it
does most certainly change the communication between real readers and the text. In
reality, any case of recontextualization will most probably also lead to the establishing
one or more new intertextual relationships between the text in question and the other
‘texts’ it is placed among. And while this relationship certainly offer interesting points
to analyze, is it beyond the scope of this thesis to explore them further so we will in
both cases of focus exclusively on recontextualization leaving the intertextual
relationships out.
In the first example of recontextualization, we will analyse and interpret the
communication of the painting at the Last Futurist Exhibition 0.10 in 1915 Petrograd,
where the historical real author Malevich exhibited his painting for the first time and
see how was the painting understood by his contemporaries as real readers, that in
this specific case, also happen to be the ones that shared the same socio-historical
paradigm with the real historical author. Through their reactions, we will see, what
meaning they assigned to the Black Square and what sort of emotions and possibilities
of interpretations this caused them.
As a second recontextualization applying the same COA concept we will be
performing the analysis of the Black Square as part of another text: the non-
denominational Rothko Chapel in Houston Texas was opened in 1971. Once again
we will explore the changes in theological meaning of the Black Square in a new
context starting with the historical author of the Rothko Chapel, the socio-historical
paradigm in which it finds itself, and the communication it provides to the real readers.

8
 1. Artist and Mystic Kazimir Malevich (1879-1935) and his
understanding of icons

To bring some light on the pervasive darkness of the Black Square as the starting
point of our analysis we will take a look at the rather complex, and often ambiguous
relationship of its’ maker, Kazimir Severinovich Malevich towards the divine. He
consistently demonstrated a keen interest in and openness to all things spiritual,
religious, and mystical, while at the same time continuing to remain outside of any
formal religious framework. His unusual relationship with God and religion, together
with his extensive knowledge of orthodox liturgy and icon painting cannons, were
repeatedly subjected to mockery by his contemporaries but continued to have an
impact on his artistic output thorough his whole life.
Kazimir was born in Kyiv, on the 11th of February 1879 as the first and only son of
well-educated and respected Polish nobles, descendants of refugees that escaped to
Ukraine after an unsuccessful Polish uprising against the Tzarist regime in 1862.
Records of Kyiv's Roman Catholic Church where he was baptized show his ancestors
were keeping tight and traditional attachments to both army and church and the
Malevich family was part of a polish bourgeoise of 19th century Poland. While living in
exile father Kazimir was working as a sugar factory inspector and the family moved
constantly between factories spread all over the Russian Empire.13 Even though the
environment in which he grew up was far from any exposal to what one would call art,
the stark difference between the peasant way of life and one of the sugar factory
workers left a deep and lifelong impression on young Kazimir. While he belonged to
the workers' society, which was serving the factories 24 hours a day he longed for the
freedom and natural rhythm of life the peasants were leading.14 Above all, he was
impressed by all present artistic expression in peasants' everyday life: from painted
houses, wooden furniture, and self-made embroidered clothes to house icons. Kazimir
wrote of this time: “The villagers …were making art (I did not know the word for this

13 Gerry Souter, Malevich: Journey to Infinity, (Parkstone International, 2008), 13.

14 Ibid., 14.

9
yet). I was very excited to watch the peasants paint; I helped them cover the floors of
their houses with clay and paint motifs onto the stoves.” 15
His first chance to see a professional artist at work came in his teenage years, in
the Belopolye when artists came to paint the icons in the church. This encounter will
spark Malevich's burning desire to become an artist and the lifelong influence that icon
will have on his work. Despite the pressures of family life and humiliating failures to
join the Moscow art academy, he will pursue his career as an artist, but most of his
education will come from the artistic circles in Moscow where he permanently settled
in 1907.16 Malevich's fresco cycle from the same year foreshadows his fledgling
investigation of themes of transcendence and redemption known to the Orthodox
believers in his immediate surroundings.17 During this time and as part of the Moscow
Symbolist group Malevich painted a series of fresco designs, where the figurative and
aesthetic resonance with an icon is extremely prominent and for which no commission
has yet ever been confirmed.18 He will in his development as an artist, very soon
surpass the mere similarity to icons and instead move towards identifications with
them through his Cubist and Futurist phases.19 Finally, in his Suprematistic works, and
Black Square, in particular, is where this likeliness will reach its fullness.20
If anything, Malevich’s attitude toward God was somewhat peculiar and strange:
he did not believe in God, nor was he hostile to Him. As depicted in one of his
sketches, his relationship with God was one of the friendly companionships of two
creators.21 Many of his friends, colleagues, and pupils claimed he was not religious or
believed in supernatural principles. But yet, many satirical paintings made by his very
contemporaries witness his persistent interest in religious subjects.22 To heighten the

15 Ibid., 19.
16 Aleksandra Shatskikh, "Kazimir Malevich: from Cubo-Futurism to Suprematism”, in
Malevich and American legacy, 167.
17Myroslava Mudrak, ”Kazimir Malevich and the Liturgical Tradition of Eastern Christianity”, in

Byzantium/Modernism: The Byzantine as Method in Modernity, ed. Roland Betancourt, Maria

Taroutina, (Koninklijke Brill NV, 2015), 40.
18 Maria Taroutina, The Icon and the Square: Russian Modernism and the Russo-Byzantine

Revival, (The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2018), 184-185.

19 Andrew Spira, 139.
20 Ibid., 9.
21 Taroutina, 208.
22 Mudrak, 66.

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mysterious conception of the Black Square Malevich invented several miraculous
narratives for it. Once it was, as his contemporary Ivan Kliun witnesses “some type of
‘fiery lightning flashes’” were sweeping over his canvas as he was painting his Black
Square." At another time he claimed that before painting the Black Square he was not
able to sleep, drink or eat for a week, which is strikingly similar to the fasting traditions
of icon painters. This and many other explanations he provided witness to his
conscious development of the image of himself as visionary and event of the birth of
Black Square being some sort of divine intervention such is one of the legend of
Mandylion. Besides endlessly expanding the Black Square meaning into philosophical
treatises, architectural models, or new art pedagogy- to name a few of many
examples, Malevich will play on the iconic reference of Black Square up until his very
death. Black Square will for the last time during his life assume the place of the holy
icon hanging above his death bed in Leningrad in 1935 and escort him to his final
resting place.23
Throughout his artistic opus, as well as in his writings, philosophical and
architectural ventures Malevich continuously expressed his search for reality beyond
the present one and the artistic expression which will respond to it. In his lifetime he
will develop several stories, narrations, and interpretations about his leap into pure
abstraction with the Black Square as the proto-image of it all. He will present himself
as a visionary, painter of icon, priest, and apostle of the new universal and spiritual
times to come. Coming chapters will show, how as much as genial and unique his art
endeavor was, he was part of the same mission among other avant-gardists in the
very specific time of Russian history, when faced with modernity Russia seeks to find
her new identity.

23 Taroutina, 205-210.

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 2. Russo-Byzantine revival and iconic presentation- political,
religious, and artistic perspectives

As we have seen Malevich's interest in religion, spirituality and iconic presentation

became a trademark of both his persona and his art. To understand his motives, as
well as the context in which Black Square has been made following three chapters,
will investigate the political, religious, and artistic circumstances in which he acted as
an artist. In this way, we will establish the connection between Kazimir Malevich as
the real author of the painting and the paradigm builders, i.e. implied author and
implied reader, which will help us to come closer to the text-immanent communication
of the Black Square painting.

2.1 Re-evaluation of icons and general political circumstances

Since the eleventh century, when the ancient Rus converted to Orthodox
Christianity, icons have been a significant part of Russian culture. They become
debased, both artistically and religiously, by the end of the 18th century, mainly due to
the Romanov Tzars dynasty's westernizing tendencies. For many reasons the icon
revival that swept Russia in the late 19th century was a response to Europe's
romanticism, the spread of rationalism in general, as well as an alternative to the
westernization of Russian culture.24
During the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, the ideas of major
Enlightenment philosophers dominated Russian intellectual discourse and shaped the
public's disdain for Byzantium—and, by extension, Russia's medieval history, and
iconography. Their utter disregard for the religious and conservative-minded
Byzantine Empire left a strong impact on how the Russian public perceived its
heritage. The popular perception was that Byzantine artistic culture was coarse,
unsophisticated, and unworthy of imitation. Prominent Russian nineteenth-century
thinkers and philosophers went as far as to blame all of the Russian problems and

24 Spira, 8.

12
evils on her Byzantine past.25 But the Napoleonic and Crimean Wars caused a growing
divide in Western Europe and at the same time will bring the ideas of the French
revolution to Russian soil. This will encourage Russians to turn inward and explore
their ancient, pre-Petrine heritage. The Byzantine legacy will increasingly become
associated with modern Russia, both in official state policy and in the public
imagination. This reassessment of Byzantine art and culture will be directly linked to
the growth of national consciences and the state's imperial ambitions. No one else but
Tzar Nicolas I, who crashed the uprising of 1825, took a keen interest in icons and the
restoration of ancient churches in Moscow and Kyiv.26 The combination of his
unquestioned Tzar authority and strong alliance with the awakened Orthodox Church,
and turbulent political and social circumstances created a perfect momentum for his
ideological statement of “Orthodoxy, Autocracy, and Nationality.”27 It is within this
revival that the holy art of icon painting made its' return and became a serious study
subject at the St. Petersburg Imperial Academy of Arts.28

2.2 Search for the authentic Russian Orthodoxy

We see now how the Russian Orthodox Church after it largely lost its influence and
might from the era of Peter the Great is invited to remove the dark patina of its face
and assume an important role in society by becoming a partner of the state's imperial
ambitions. Imagined to be one of the important pillars of Tzar's power Nicolas's reign
will be marked by the massive but often superficial Russian Orthodox evangelization
achieved mainly by militant conversions. In this atmosphere, church scholars,
encouraged by the government, intensified the quest to purify and define authentic
Russian Orthodoxy. However, this extremely long and struggling effort resulted in
nothing more than loud 'denunciatory theology' which was too abstract and complex
to be comprehended by many contemporaries- whether trained or not in theological
matters. And at the same time, corruption within the church sparked controversy and
was often and openly criticized. As a result parish clergy turned to pastoral work and

25 Taroutina, 22.
26 Spira, 27.
27 Taroutina, 32.

28 Ibid., 36.

13
practical support for their believers. By the end of the century, statesmen who
expected the church to strengthen the tsarist regime were surprised to learn that
instead church missions could lead to civil unrest, and the clergy's growing pastoral
commitment eventually will support the calls for social and political reform. On the
verge of empire collapse in 1905, the government prioritized imperial security over
ecclesiastical contentment. The toleration proclamation of 17 April was widely
regarded as a betrayal in the eyes of the church leaders and led them into divisive,
politicized conflicts. These debates shifted the church even further away from the
spiritual needs of its members. While a growing number of atheists and zealots had
firmly entrenched themselves at the extremes of the popular religious spectrum by the
end of the old regime, the majority of Orthodox Russians continued to seek
accommodation between folk belief and Christian doctrine that had characterized
Russian religious practice for centuries. 29
In this spiritual vacuum, Russian intellectual and cultural circles will show a
significant rise of interest in the spheres commonly referred to, rather vaguely and
inaccurately, as "other-worldly." The term's ambiguity reflects the vast areas it
denotes, areas frequently logically and ontologically incompatible, yet occasionally to
be met in the same person. It was prophetic ecstasy and a pivotal mission at its core,
and in many ways, this period represents the pinnacle of the Russian search for
spirituality.30 The avant-garde movement was in that sense, a part of the larger group
of people who had a tight connection to the realm of culture and were set on the quest
to express religiosity by the mean of arts.

2.3 The avant-garde artists and iconic presentation

Following those political and religious circumstances, the Russo-Byzantine revival
became closely entwined with modern artistic expression and the emergence of a new,
uniquely fin de siècle style. New revivalist monuments became aesthetic microcosms
of Russia's larger engagement with and response to modernity, combining nostalgia,

29 Simon Dixon, “The Russian Orthodox Church in imperial Russia 1721–1917”, in The
Cambridge History of Eastern Christianity, (Cambridge University Press, 2008), 347.
30 Leonid Sabaneeff, Religious and Mystical Trends in Russia at the Turn of the Century, in

The Russian Review, Oct. 1965, Vol. 24, No. 4 (Oct. 1965), pp. 354-368, 354.

14
traditionalism, historicism, and nationalism on the one hand, with technological
progress, artistic innovation, and avant-garde experimentation on the other. 31
While the state of Russian society and its ills became a rich source of debate in
intellectual circles during the politically charged 1860s and 1870s, the cornerstones of
a critical realist art movement surfaced when several artists split away from Academic
painting and began to approach religious themes in unusually daring ways. The
Orthodox Church's corruption had sparked public controversy since the 1840s, but it
wasn't until this time that artists would publicly criticize the church through painting,
causing angry reactions.32 At the same time, the new school of avant-garde artists
began to see Russo-Byzantine art as a distinct paradigm of visuality and a potent
pictorial counterpoint to the Academy's still-dominant nineteenth-century naturalism.
Yet still the end of the 19th century, despite significant advances in scholarship,
exhibition, and restoration methods, many thinkers and critics believed that the Russo-
Byzantine representational tradition was aesthetically underrated. Art historians and
intellectuals of the following generation, such as Punin and Tarabukin, were intensely
concerned with both the current and future development of Russian art. Their
fascination with the Russo-Byzantine heritage sprang not just from historical curiosity,
but also from a deep desire to make a difference in the modern art world. They
believed that contemporary Russian art was in predicament, that it had "lost all of its
meaning," that it had become "unnecessary" and "dead" for the majority of viewers
and that the only way for Russian artists to meaningfully contribute to international
modern art was to look back “to the golden age of the Russian icon—the path to
powerful painterly form.” Tarabukin and Punin believed that re-evaluating the Russo-
Byzantine legacy from an aesthetic and ideological standpoint would not only renew
Russian contemporary art but also pave the way for a global artistic revolution:

We believe that the icon . . . will set contemporary art on a path

toward achievements different from those which have

31Taroutina, 40.
32Louise Hardiman and Nicola Kozicharow, introduction to Modernism and the Spiritual in
Russian Art: New Perspectives, ed. Louise Hardiman and Nicola Kozicharow, (Cambridge,
UK: Open Book Publishers, 2017), 17.

15
 preoccupied European art in the last decade . . . we are searching
for different values, a different inspiration, a different art.33

Russia's long-overlooked indigenous aesthetic heritage appeared to be pointing the

way to the most profound modernist innovation.34 Together with father Pavel
Florensky, Punin and Tarabukin went even further claiming that based on
its transcendent and philosophical supremacy, Russo-Byzantine art was considerably
superior to that of the Italian Renaissance and later European painting. In short, in the
face of modernity's continual flux, instability, and fragmentation, the icon was
portrayed as an indispensable tool with which society could shape a new philosophical
and spiritual consciousness.35
While Byzantine revival and icon painting de facto influenced the whole avant-garde
movement, it's important to remember that this group in itself was an extremely diverse
phenomenon. Various artists were drawn to icon painting in as many different ways
as the icon itself had multiple interpretations. While some were interested in the poetic
connotations or painting techniques associated with icons, others were more
concerned with their social purpose. Only a few have searched deeper into the icon's
peculiar metaphysical depth and utilized it in their works. 36 And Kazimir Malevich was
the one that went furthest.

33 Taroutina, 44- 46.

34 Ibid., 47
35 Taroutina, 49.

36 Spira, 8.

16
 3. Theology of Icon in Russian Orthodoxy

Previous chapters showed how important and influential the iconic presentation
was on Russian society's cultural expression during the Russo-Byzantine revival at
the turbulent turn of the century. But if we are to properly understand the icon we must
observe it in the context of Russian Orthodoxy and the functions of iconic presentation
within it. Unlike in the West, where religious art has carried predominantly catechetical
and aesthetical functions, in Eastern Christianity, ever since the beginnings icons were
inseparably tied to their dogmatic meaning.37 The icon, through artistic means,
communicates "the essential doctrines of Christianity of the Holy Trinity, the
incarnation, salvation, and human deification.”38 In its deepest sense, the art of
painting an icon is the one of ‘capturing’ messages, ideas, forms, and values from
another, transcendent world into the matter. The theme of the icon is the
metaphysically grounded realism that is offered to the icon painter through Revelation.
That is why the canons of painting were established in ancient Byzantium. Well known,
the Orthodox Church’s prohibition on ‘corporeality’ and ‘graven images’ precluded any
kind of three-dimensional sculpture, since it carried pagan, Hellenistic associations of
idolatry. Accordingly, Orthodox church decoration was strictly limited to icons,
mosaics, and frescoes.39
The primary theological function of the orthodox icon is to provide direct revelation
of the invisible God to man. A God who has revealed to humanity in the person of the
Son of God who took upon Himself human nature. Therefore, His image is the
strongest expression of Chalcedon dogma that asserts the mysterious union of His
two natures: divine and human in one hypostasis.40 The incarnation of Christ

37Tonka Odobašić, "Teološko iščitavanje ikone u pravoslavnoj teologiji."in Služba Božja 47,
nr. 3 (2007), 274.
38 Hilarion Metropolitan (Alfeyev), “Theology of Icon in the Orthodox Church -Lecture at St.

Vladimir’s Seminary, 5 February 2011”, The Russian Orthodox Church

https://mospat.ru/en/news/56024/
39 Taroutina, 17.

40 Odobašić, 293.

17
established a principle based on which it is then appropriate to depict the divine in
material form. This principle is put into practice in icon painting and made it essentially
a sacred type of art.41
Icons do not so much portray Christ as if He were their 'subject matter', but rather
accurately realize him in an extended material form. That is why icons must adhere to
their theological importance to retain their genuine identity, and for this reason,
Orthodox art has a relatively limited range of subjects.42 Incarnation and redemption
dogma established the foundation for all iconography and made it possible for all other
venerated figures such as the Mother of God and saints to be the subject of the iconic
presentation.43 Consequentially, in their essence, every icon is anthropological but is
never an exact portrait aspiring to capture only physical likeliness. Instead, the person
on the icon is presented in their sanctified state of one being truly transformed by the
Holy Spirit.44 The icon portrayal of a human being not only preserves historical facts
and truth, regarding the existence of a particular human hypostasis but also witnesses
what is yet to come. The icon paradoxically reveals "what is yet to be'' as what is
presently taking place.45
Distorted proportions, inverted perspective, and often illogical placement of light in
iconic paintings all serve to show the difference between divine transformed reality
and the one in which the viewers stand. At the same time, these very same formal
aspects enable the viewer to be included in the 'Divine gaze’ and unity with God. 46 For
the very same reason, faces on the venerated are almost always painted in a frontal
orientation allowing the most important point of the icon, the face to come forward and
claim the attention of the viewer. Therefore eyes, a spiritual center of the iconic face
seldomly look straight into those of the viewer, rather the iconic gaze stands above
the viewer's head as if looking into her/s soul.47 Consequently, the prayerful gaze of

41 Spira, 17.
42 Hilarion
43 Odobašić, 294.

44 Hilarion

45 Davor Džalto, “The Testimony of Icons”, in Studia Theologica 7, nr. 1, 2009, 52.

46 Ibid, 55.

47 Hilarion

18
an Orthodox Christian does not stop at the surface of the icon of Christ and does not
look at his face simply as it looks at the faces in profane paintings, but instead looks
at Christ's transfiguration glory, exposing to the light of Christ our “unveiled faces,
seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into
the same image from one degree of glory to another ” (cf. 2 Cor 3:18). The same being
passes from the earthly to the heavenly state, preserving the identity of her/s person
and changing the quality (cf. 1 Cor 15: 40,43-44).48
Icons are not merely passive objects for observation but active witnesses of faith:
we look at the icon, but the icon also looks at us. We become conscious of God's
constant attention upon us as we observe it. The icon's gaze, which, together with its
perspective, enters our reality and space, was underlined by the position that the icon
used to occupy, and still does, in Russian Orthodox Christians' homes: the corner of
the room, or ‘holy’ corner. The most famous explanation of this practice, dating back
to the 6th century tells the story of the miraculous healing of King Abgar of Edessa by
the touch of an image of Christ imprinted on a piece of cloth. This sacred relic, created
by Christ himself and called mandylion, became an archetype and basis for all other
iconic representations.49 The same legend confirms how after being healed, king
Abgar replaced the ancient pagan idols in the town with the Mandylion, which was
publicly placed in a corner of the city walls as a symbol of his gratitude and newly
embraced Christian faith.50
The theological meaning of the icon defines the icon's liturgical purpose within the
tradition of the Orthodox Church. Just like Gospel, an icon is an object that is venerated
during the liturgy by prostration, bows, and kisses of the faithful. Being an integral part
of the liturgical space and service, once outside the Church and liturgy icon loses its'
salvific meaning at large. For this reason, early icons were executed almost exclusively
in frescos tightly connected to the church building.51 In the late 15th century when a
large number of movable icons exchanged frescos Old Russia will slowly develop the
theology of iconostasis. Architecturally and figuratively corresponding to frescos

48 Odobašić, 293.
49 Spira, 17.
50 Taroutina, 184.

51 Hilarion

19
theological goal of the iconostasis is to provide the theophany of divine order to the
laity through the tiers of icons that adorn it.52 And while every Christian has the right
to display an icon in her/s home, this is true only insofar as their household is an
extension of the church and her/s life is a continuation of the liturgy.53 The icon as a
sacred image in its religious function can be understood only within the Church "where
the refreshing powers of the Holy Spirit act". Outside the Church it is
incomprehensible. There is no icon outside the Church.54

4. Icon and the Black Square - text-immanent communication

In our efforts to illuminate the meaning of the Black Square from the text-immanent
perspective due to the high abstract nature of the text we had to base our analysis on
the information the real author and paradigm builders had to offer us. We discovered
how Kazimir Malevich was not only deeply influenced by, but also very well educated
on the icon's theological and dogmatic meaning. This flicker of understanding
becomes clearer after we were able to see it embedded in the specific historical
moment where the author matured as an artist, finding himself a part of Russia's avant-
garde movement. And precisely at the time while the society as a whole was busy with
re-exploration of the Byzantine past aiming to develop a new identity that would carry
it into modernity. Modern and at the same time distinct Russian identity and style will
leave an artistic imprint in the creations of avant-garde paintings that borrowed from
the religious art of iconic painting. While they frequently abandoned the religious and
dogmatic meanings of icons, they often used the formal and, in Malevich's case,
ontological/theological properties of iconic presentation.

Still, when strictly staying within the perspective of the text- immanent
communication of the painting, these properties cannot be claimed with absolute
certainty. Both the text-immanent author and text-immanent reader remain locked

52 Spira, 18.
53 Hilarion
54 Odobašić, 295.

20
within the painting and their communication remains unknown. It is for this reason that,
while present, the text-immanent communication, as well as any religious significance
of the painting poses a challenge for a real historical reader to identify.

This is not to say that because the text-immanent communication cannot be

established as religious with certainty, the text has no meaning or has no potential to
communicate the religion to real readers. In the following two chapters, we will look at
how, even though the religiosity of text-immanent communication is only theoretical,
the real historical reader who observes the painting in different contexts can
understand its religious potential and/or have a uniquely transcendent experience by
engaging with it.

21
 5. Black Square in the context of The Last Futurist Exhibition
0.10 (St. Petersburg 1915)

So far, our analysis has revealed that at the time the Black Square painting was
created, the Russian artistic society, and Malevich with it were involved in the general
search for a new and authentic artistic expression of modern Russia. Nonetheless, we
discovered that, despite exploring the historical paradigm, understanding the Black
Square's text immanent communication remains extremely difficult. By shifting our
perspective in the text analysis, we will now examine the painting from the perspective
of the actual historical reader. And not just any reader- but the reader who got to see
the painting in the shared context for which Malevich has painted it in the first place.
Through their understanding, we will be able to see how was the religious potential of
the Black Square understood at the time and why it was connected to the iconic
painting so strongly. Although their interpretation will not bring the text-immanent
communication out of the dark it will certainly strengthen the plausibility of iconic
resonance in Black Square.

The artworks on display at The Last Futurist Exhibition of Painting 0.10, exhibited
at Nadezhda Dobychina's private "Art Bureau," scandalized the museum-going
audience of St. Petersburg (then Petrograd), on December 19, 1915. An extraordinary
amount of critical outrage was witnessed to the artworks on display at 0.10's
exceptional novelty. Later this show will be dubbed "one of the 10 most important
exhibitions of the twentieth century." For it not only changed the trajectory of modern
art in Russia, but it also ushered in a completely new artistic mindset that would affect
numerous generations of artists around the world. This significance came also from
the fact that as much as this exhibition represented the end of one era it also marked
the beginning of a new one. Taking place just two years after the 1913 Exhibition of
Ancient Russian Art, it was appropriately named the "last" Futurist exhibition because
it self-consciously engaged with many of the aesthetic and thematic concerns that had
dominated the artistic landscape of pre-revolutionary Russia. If the audience was
challenged to see Russia's artistic past in a new light at the 1913 exhibition, 0.10

22
presented a completely new set of representational paradigms for Russia's artistic
future.
But nothing has caused as much a stir as Kazimir Malevich famously hanging
his Black Square right under the ceiling across the corner of the art gallery, taunting
the sacred position of icons in traditional Russian households. Both visitors and critics
of the 0.10 exhibition unmistakably understood the connotations between Black
Square and a sacred image – an icon.55 It was called an "evil hallucination" and an
"affirmation of the cult of futility, melancholy, and...'nothingness'" by an outraged critic
Alexander Benois.56 His words above all show how close Malevich came to the very
ontological essence of the icon. At the same exhibition Tatlin counter relief displays-
most likely because of their three-dimensionality- were not perceived or red as iconic
at all.

Figure 3.- The Last Futurist Exhibition 0.10, Petrograd 1915 (source: Wikipedia)

55 Taroutina, 179-184.
56 Ibid., 204.

23
 Malevich reinforced this iconic reference, by positioning the Black Square to
visually assert its "supremacy" over all the other paintings. Strongly referencing the
legend of Mandalyon, the painting assumed the figurative role of a "divine prototype,"
or "zero of form," from which all other Suprematist works descended. The irregular
arrangement of the paintings, combined with the floor-to-ceiling hang, resulted in a
"Suprematist mural" that enveloped the viewer in its space with the Black Square at
its’ apogee. This placement was an intentional metaphor for the divine hierarchy of a
church iconostasis, with Pantocrator in the highest registers. Emulating the spiritual
order of an iconostasis, Malevich symbolically associated Black Square with the image
of Christ while also referencing the Mandylion legend.57
From the brochure that accompanied his paintings, made by Malevich himself, it is
clear how he was unable to put in words what exactly has he done with his
Suprematistic paintings installation. But the visual iconic system he used proved to be
clear for most of his audience.58 Clearly, with his gesture, Malevich aimed to actively
involve the observer, mediating enlightenment, much like a priest during liturgy. 59
Although Black Square did not have a dogmatic similarity to ancient canons of
iconography, it completely embraced the visual system designed at transforming the
beholder-just as Byzantine art as a whole does.60 The painting was undeniably
pointing to the path of personal regeneration, spiritual reinvigoration, and commitment
to a better future. By removing any pictorial references to the outer world Black Square
demanded the viewer's attention in an experience of complete abstraction. Malevich
developed a visual language that was intrinsically expressive of meaning due to its
forms. Black Square became an icon because it was perceived to be merging with the
infinity of reality rather than specifically abstracted within it or merely emblematic of it.
The idea behind the painting was that because it had no content, there was nothing in
it that could be used to distinguish it from reality's infinity. Because it did not merely

57 Taroutina, 206.
58 Charlotte Douglas, “Defining Suprematism: The Year of Discovery", 32
59 Mudrak, 40.

60 Ibid., 72.

24
portray reality, it was reality. Not a replica of living things, but a living thing in its own
right.61
Yet, while abstraction freed the paintings from external frames of reference, at the
same time it detached them from reality as a whole. Instead, they were brought to
existence as independent and isolated worlds. And while undoubtedly expressive, the
language of early Suprematistic works, Black Square included, was expressive only
of its reality.62 For Malevich himself, with this proclamation, Black Square was an icon.
The audience and critics will unmistakably understand it as such and react to it in
various ways. Paradoxically, it is precisely in the critics that proclaimed the act as the
blasphemous one Black Square will show its resonance and at the same time strong
dependence on the iconic presentation. Once outside this paradigm, similar to the icon
outside of the church, this connection fades and becomes impenetrable for the viewer.

6. Black Square in the context of Rothko Chapel (Houston,

Texas 1971)

Up until now, we have seen how while the internal communication of the Back
Square remains for the greatest part mysterious, we can say how within the shared
historical paradigm of the real author and real readers, text immanent communication
was indicating the possibility to present transcendent through the absence of any form
except for the Black Square. In the coming chapter, we will see whether and how this
communication changes depending on the different context. For that purpose, our
analysis will move half-century ahead and across the ocean- into the paradigm often
perceived and translated as the complete opposite of the one where Malevich painted
his Black Square. And yet, surprisingly enough where the enlarged black squares will
adorn the walls of the basilica-shaped Rothko Chapel in Texas Houston until this very
day. Since in this case the authors of the new works of art, as well as their paradigm,
is different than the one of the original Black Square, we will present it shortly and then

61 Spira, 139-140.
62 Ibid., 139.

25
see how these changes affect the communication concerning the real historical reader.

Many big events, including two world wars, will reshape the world in the time
between Malevich's first iconic reference to Black Square in Petrograd in 1915 and the
consecration of the Rothko Chapel. Imperial Russia will be long dead, the name of the
artist known as Malevich will only be whispered or forgotten, and copies of his Black
Square, along with the icons, will descend once more underground. Surprisingly, the
same fate will befall abstract art worldwide until it emerges again in the abstract
expressionism of the New York school around 1940. The New York School's fruitful
production will contribute to the widespread appeal of abstract art, bringing recognition
to many authors. Among them will be Mark Rothko, who will crown his artistic
opus with the Rothko Chapel, one of the “twentieth century’s boldest re-imaginings of
spiritual space.”63
While the chapel will be named after Rothko, as is the case with many greatest acts
of human achievement it was the collaboration of multiple immensely talented minds—
including those of Dominique and John de Menil, Father Marie-Alain Couturier, Mark
Rothko, Philip Johnson, and Barnett Newman - that led to the development of the
Rothko Chapel. The combination of these six personalities allowed for the creation of
a place that, ever since its debut in February 1971, has been regarded as one of the
leading contributions to twentieth-century Western art.64 Besides that, it also functions
as a meeting spot for a variety of activities devoted to ecumenical and inter-religious
encounters, as well as an always-open sanctuary for individuals that seek it. 65

63 Alison C. Meier, “How the Rothko Chapel Creates Spiritual Space”, Jstore Daily, last
modified 02.03.2020, https://daily.jstor.org/how-the-rothko-chapel-creates-spiritual-space/
64 Pia Gottschaller, “The Rothko Chapel: Toward The Infinite”, in Art and activism :

projects of John and Dominique de Menil, edited by Josef Helfenstein and Lauren Schipsi
(Menil Collection, 2010), 137.
65 Catherine Wendtlandt, “At 50, the Rothko Chapel Is as Relevant as It’s Ever Been”

Houstonia, last modified 24.02.2021, https://www.houstoniamag.com/arts-and-

culture/2021/02/rothko-chapel-50th-anniversary-celebrations-legacy

26
 Figure 4- Rothko Chapel-exterior (Houston, Texas) image courtesy of Click2Houston

Figure 5- Rothko Chapel – interior (Houston, Texas) photo courtesy of Paul Hester

On the outside, the chapel is executed in yellow stucco, its' shape being an
octagonal reminiscence of Byzantium basilica with black doors as its only entrance
and a skylight providing the sole source of light. Inside, the walls are adorned with 14

27
large rectangular canvases, painted in black which only shows different hues of dark
colors under the specific light shifts coming through the skylight. Three walls in the
chapel are displaying triptychs and five others carry single canvases. Both paintings
and buildings make one piece of art, as the son of the painter recently explained: "…He
[Rothko] took a new studio space just for the chapel project, where he could mock-up
the three walls of the chapel. To emphasize, he didn't just paint the paintings, he really
designed the interior of that chapel. So, the paintings are the size they are because
the walls are the size they are. And the walls are the size they are because the
paintings are the size they are. It’s really one space, one composition. He came up
with this octagonal design based on an ancient Byzantine model that he had seen. He
set aside the next four years of his life to work on this project—it was really his dream
commission.”66

6.1 Disenchanted West - the birthplace of the Rothko Chapel

We will begin our examination of the black squared canvases in the Rothko Chapel
by revisiting the sociohistorical context in which this last religious commission
occurred. In the case of the Rothko Chapel and our emphasis on recontextualization,
our analysis will provide an overview of the main circumstances relevant for
understanding the purpose of this commission and the use of black squares as the
main chapel decoration. We will shortly explain the initiative of De Menils and Rothko’s
execution of the task. As mentioned before, the first architectural solution started with
Phillip Johnson, but due to his disputes about the shape and lighting of the chapel (he
insisted on a rectangular one while Rothko preferred an octagonal one) Howard
Barnstone and Eugene Aubry will be the ones to finish it in accordance to Rothko
wishes.67 For this reason, we will take Mark Rothko as the real author of both the
paintings and the chapel design.

66 Christopher Rothko in Catherine Wendtlandt

67 Gottschaler, 141.

28
 6.1.1. Chapel’s authors - De Menils and Rothko
To properly understand the Rothko Chapel and the large black square canvases
that adorn its walls one has to place it into the wider architectural project of the French
Sacred Art movement of the 1940s and 50s and the friendship that developed between
the devoted catholic couple De Menil and father Marie-Alain Couturier. Sacred art and
architecture, he insisted, should be recognizable in the context of their time and place,
serve to open an instinctive relationship between the viewer and the work, and assume
responsibility for the maintenance of humanity's physical and spiritual senses. The
sensory experience they provide, much like the power of the icon, should directly
enable the viewer to the revelation of the divine truth. Transforming his ideas into
reality he will actively embark on several architectural projects such are the Assy
church, chapel in Vence, the church in Audincourt, and Le Corbusier's works at
Ronchamp and La Tourette. In 1952 De Menils visited several of these sights and
were impressed by the successful application of his theories in chapels they saw.
While with Couturier's untimely death in 1954, the Sacred Art movement will also come
to a halt, the Rothko Chapel project will be a natural extension of his ideas on American
soil. An additional yet crucial point of the Rothko Chapel initiative was father Yves
Congar's ecumenical theology with its’ call to turn outward and rebuild the bonds of
our shared humanity. This, together with Couturier's theories primarily concerned with
the restoration of the senses within individuals provided the theoretical foundation for
the commissioners. With this in mind, De Menils set out to design a catholic venue
that will accommodate both.68 Seeing in Europe what a master artist can achieve when
given free rein, and being familiar with Rothko's Seagram murals, they decided to
commission him for their project.69
Mark Rothko was born on September 25, 1903, as Marcus Rothkowitz in Dvinsk
(today Daugavpils, Latvia), a predominantly Jewish populated town that at the time
was a part of the Russian empire. While his older siblings were all attending public
schools, in a sudden turn of the heart his father Yakow will enrol 4-year-old Marcus in

68 Caitlin Turski Watson: Common Ground: The Rothko Chapel and Architectural Activism, in
Crossings Between the Proximate and Remote, 2017, 6.
69 Annie Cohen-Solal, Mark Rothko: Toward the Light in the Chapel, (Yale University Press,

2013), 187.

29
a Cheder, a traditional Jewish school, where he learned Hebrew, Torah, and Jewish
observance and rituals. He studied here until the age of ten and, those years left lasting
expression on young Rothko. However, in 1913, due to the escalation of the
persecution of the Jews his family will emigrate to Portland, Oregon.70 While young
Rothko was adjusting to life in America artistic groups, many of which were of German-
Jewish ancestry were making way for European Modernists in the United States.71
Despite receiving a full scholarship to Yale University, disillusioned with the lack of
attention dedicated to the arts and literature, as well as anti-Semitism, Rothko left his
studies and moved to New York City at the age of twenty.72 New York at a time was
gaining international recognition as a cultural and artistic hub. He became a painter by
accident while waiting for a friend and strolled into an art class. Rothko began painting
in a social realist style after enrolling in Max Weber's class at the Art Students'
League.73 Due to this own disposal and contributions of European expatriated avant-
garde painters, many of whom were heading towards abstraction, Rothko will slowly
and steadily move towards it himself. In Rothko's case, departing from the
representation served as a tool to emphasize the expression of the subject of his
paintings: unchanging and universal human experiences of existence. Seeing how his
mythical themes did not seem to be popular with the general, unenchanted public who
was no longer familiar with the rituals and did not sense the necessity for transcendent
experience, he lamented how: 'Without monsters and gods, art cannot enact our
drama.' This animosity, however, he used as a lever towards true liberty. To properly
communicate his ideas, just like Malevich did before him, he will progressively move
towards more radical abstraction. But even in 1950 when most of his canvases
consisted of nothing more than large squares painted with different hues of the same
color, Rothko claimed his paintings are realistic. Instead, the formal abstraction
features expressed in the line, color, and space, the subject of human emotion, or
what he would call “the human drama” was their central subject.74 He will state himself:

70 Cohen-Solal, 11- 14.

71 Ibid., 56.
72 Ibid., 48.

73 Rothko-Chapel Fact Sheet, at http://www.rothkochapel.org/assets/pdfs/Fact-Sheet.pdf

74 Stoker, ”The Rothko Chapel”, 96.

30
“A picture lives by companionship, expanding and quickening in the eyes of the
sensitive observer. It dies by the same token.”75
It is fascinating how in a way similar to the one of Malevich, Rothko did not seek an
alternative to familiar and conventional Christian art representation of the West but
instead used it extensively when making the chapel. Well-known Christian form
components, such as the octagonal shape of the chapel, triptych arrangement of
canvases, and late medieval tradition in the vertical narrow panel serve in a chapel as
a means of expression of what is religiously universal in the society that is rapidly
changing and becoming religiously pluralistic. In addition, precisely in the exclusion of
the figurative representation enlarged black square canvases, safely preserved by the
octagonal shape of the chapel, go beyond merely communicating the transcendent
but instead offer to become this experience for the viewer.76

6.2 Visitors on Rothko Chapel – their place to feel and search

As we know now chapel was imagined to present the re-imagining of the catholic
religious space grounded on the ideas of father Couturier and Yves Congar, but by
the time it opened its door in 1971, due to the progressive pluralisation of the society,
De Menils decided for it to be a place for individuals of all religions- and those with no
religion at all. For the last forty years the Rothko Chapel is a place of interfaith
harmony, a human rights advocacy organization, and a one-man art gallery housing
14 colossal black canvases works of abstract expressionist Mark Rothko.77
Due to his untimely death in 1970 Rothko will never see his masterpiece finished
or witness the impact he intended to evoke in the visitors. Nor will he know, that among
the comments written in the guest book kept in the chapel's foyer, the most frequently
used word is “peace”. Remarks like “indeed a sacred feeling filled me and inspired
peace and awe” or “at a time of turmoil and change a peaceful contemplative respite”

75 Mark Rothko in Stoker ”The Rothko Chapel”, 97.

76 Stoker, ”The Rothko Chapel” 99.
77 Pat Dowel, “Meditation And Modern Art Meet In Rothko Chapel”, at NPR, last modified

on 01.03.2011, https://www.npr.org/2011/03/01/134160717/meditation-and-modern-art-meet-
in-rothko-chapel?t=1657614535708

31
are typical.78 Suna Umari that has held a variety of positions there for as almost as
long as the chapel is standing, during the time she worked as an attendant, has first-
hand witnessed the significance chapel has for visitors. She says: “People feel
it's their place”, and when asked about the role of the canvases further explains:
"They're sort of a window to beyond".79
In his beautifully written article titled Learning not to look: A Visit to the Rothko
Chapel, William E. Cain, describes his 'struggle' with understanding black paintings.
As an art lover with a specific interest in Rothko, here he describes his visits to the
chapel that happened over the course of two days and his struggle to understand the
black canvases. Entering the chapel for the first time he describes how the paintings
overwhelmed him physically:

I could see the tall, stark, very dark paintings within the entry
doors on the left and right, and the paintings on the side walls
appeared to be intensely black as well... . It was not possible to
see one of them at a time. My consciousness was always of one
while others demanded attention on either side.80

With the uneasy feeling of canvases being in control of him and disturbed by their
aggressiveness and distance at the same time, he decides to leave for a while and
return later. Coming for the second time the same uneasiness comes, but this time
with the less severe effect-author finds. Persisting to understand the paintings he tries
placing them in the context of the history of art and Rothko's blow to all his influences,
including Malevich:

…he had delivered a statement against all of the influences on his

art - Fra Angelico, Rembrandt, Turner, Matisse, Avery, Bonnard -
and all of the styles of his modernist precursors and
contemporaries - Malevich, Mondrian, Pollock, Newman, Still,
Reinhardt, de Kooning, Kline, all of them…This was the end of the

78 James E.B. Breslin, “Mark Rothko's Chapel in Houston”, The Threepenny Review No.
55 (Autumn, 1993), 27.
79 Suna Umari in Dowel

80 William E. Cain, “Learning Not to Look: A Visit to the Rothko Chapel”, in Southwest

Review , 2009, Vol. 94, No. 2 (2009), pp. 175

32
 painting, its burial ground….No one could live in the world of the
Chapel because what Rothko had painted here comes after the
world we know. These paintings are from death. At last, I
understood them. 81

Satisfied he finally thinks he understands the message Rothko wanted to convey-

the death, of both art and human being. But then next morning, exactly at the moment
when not trying to understand anymore he:

…had the sensation not of having no thoughts but of having odd

lofty thoughts. I wondered, what is human nature? Then I
wondered, where did that question come from?82

This feeling, he says, came to him and brought him into a heightened state of
awareness. Again, he leaves to visit another gallery but suddenly wants to return to
the Rothko chapel for one last time. And then, feeling the paintings as a familiar
embrace he begins to pay attention to the people in the chapel instead. Some of the
young, some older, some with families, and partners; some are crying, others
meditating or kneeling, and praying before the canvases. Then he concludes:

…the paintings bring forward the person you are to someone who
has paused to see you. This is a rare form of empathic art, and I
want to say that it has no precedent: it exists in a zone of
experience that includes yet is other than art.83

The meaning of the paintings lies, according to him, not in what they are but in who
they turn us toward, and viewers that have patience and understanding will be able to
see it.
Seeing in how many ways one can experience the Rothko Chapel we can guess
that there are probably as many interpretations and understandings as the number of
visits to the chapel. The couple of examples we presented here shows what an

81 Cain, 180
82 Ibid., 181
83 Ibid., 184

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extensive potential to communicate something described as more, beyond,
transcendent and religious- the Rothko Chapel has. This work shows how religious
form and abstract art can successfully provide, what one can call religious experience
without locking itself within specific organised religious traditions. Overwhelming dark
canvases offer and demand a journey- towards ourselves, others, and beyond.

34
Conclusion

What this is? Is this even art? Does this mean anything at all?- still are the questions
that ever mysterious and puzzling Black Square of Kazimir Malevich seems to provoke
in its viewers. Dark and mute, it keeps asking without revealing much. As one-sided
as it might seem, this also is a way of communication.
Being the first visual emblem of a new era in global artistic culture has given Black
Square an iconic place in the art world. The question of its theological significance and
relationship to religion is still difficult to answer, but in light of our analysis carried out
using the Communication Oriented Analysis methodology, we are providing a few
interpretations that may be appropriate, depending on the angle from which we are
approaching the text.
When looking at the text-immanent communication of the Black Square painting,
the theological meaning and connection with the Orthodox icon remain closed within
the text itself. This leaves us with nothing more than an speculation as to the possible
theological significance of the Black Square - despite our extensive knowledge of
Malevich and his keen interest in the spiritual and functional aspects of icons, the
historical social conditions that encouraged religious and spiritual revival, and the
avant-garde use of iconic qualities in their expression. The text-immanent
communication does not show what is taking place in its’ textual universe, whether in
a religious or any other sense.
This does not mean that painting is meaningless or does not communicate
anything. We can see how when placed in the certain context and facing the real
reader is where the painting's communication opens to many meanings and
interpretations including religious ones. At its very first exhibition, in St. Petersburg in
1915, under the direction of Malevich himself, the painting demanded attention from
the visitors sitting at the highest register of the ‘holy corner’- the position traditionally
occupied by the proto-image, from which all other icons are possible. Both audience
and critics, as the real readers sharing the same socio-historical paradigm with the
author, understood the reference immediately but interpreted it each in their way. For

35
some, the painting was nothing more than a blasphemous act of deconstruction and
a threat to the existing borders between artistic and religious experience. Others,
perhaps those more inclined to agree with the painter have interpreted it as a new icon
for the different times to come, and a genuine reminder that time for regeneration and
new transformation has come. For this new, transformed reality is already here and
opens a path beyond to those who dare to be embraced by its gaze. Whether
perceived positively or negatively, in both cases audience understood the religious
reference to the iconic presentation of the transcendent reality which is materialized
but ultimately beyond representation. Once outside this context, for the contemporary
reader, that shares no knowledge of the 'holy' corner or theological functions of the
Orthodox icon this meaning, however, will be for the greatest part lost.
But this again does not mean that once replaced in another context potential of the
Black Square to evoke religious experience is completely lost. The painting will, a half-
century later find a new and permanent home decorating the walls of the non -
denominational Rothko Chapel in Houston Texas. Enlarged to the monumental
proportions and firmly connected to the eight basilica-shaped walls the dark and
inaccessible square surfaces will provide intense and accessible experience of
religious for those who are seeking it. Rather than abandoning existing Christian
formal components, just like Malevich did before him, Rothko used them instead to
express what he understood as religiously universal and maximize the possibility of
touching the transcendence for the searching visitor. And while the language used in
it is predominantly Christian, the religious experience the black canvases offer is easily
adapted to the many different traditions. For the visitors can interpret the meaning
each in their tradition which might include the specific confessional framework but it is
not required. Through their experiences we can see how, in a very specific way,
ranging from frightening to soothing, canvasses affect their emotions and perspective,
provoking reflection and bringing existential questions to the surface of one's mind. To
some visitors, chapel helps to find a way back to themselves, while to others, it shows
the way to the people surrounding them.
Painting indeed, lives by companionship. Black Square more than any other
presentation out there. And the theological and religious in it as well. Just as the
religion and God in our society do not show their faces as direct as they use to, it

36
doesn’t mean they are lost. Certainly not for those who dare to face and approach the
unknown.

37
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