“A Dream Is Born of Nature and Belongs to Nature.” Malevich's Black Square: How Does Nature Create an Abstract Painting?

When we speak of creativity, it seems almost self-evident that the creative process, and the imagination without which creation is impossible, are processes that take place within our psyche. And in truth, this is so. If art is culture, and culture is created by human beings, then the creation of a work of art takes place within the human psyche. We examined this in earlier texts of this series — without the artist's personality and without the impersonal collective unconscious (both of which are psychic components), a painting, as a work of art, would never take on the tangible form we can observe. In this text, I invite you to try to step “beyond the boundaries of the psyche” and consider the idea that nature, the outer reality — that which lies beyond the psyche — also creates the painting. To try to grasp how, in what way, nature is part of the creative process. This undoubtedly shakes the seemingly self-evident notion that creativity is purely a psychic process; on the other hand, this stepping “beyond the boundaries of the psyche” opens new horizons for understanding what truly creates a painting.

Of course, when we touch on the question of nature and outer reality, in the process of painting we see before us countless wonderful landscapes, portraits, and still lifes. Everything seems clear enough: we paint what we see, we reproduce nature. Outer reality is, as it were, the “material” of creation — and indeed, before abstract art emerged, it was impossible to separate outer reality from the art that reproduced it. Yet this notion falls apart with the emergence of another painting genre — abstraction. Abstraction is the expression of an idea, an image within our psyche. An expression of the processes taking place within us, rather than a reproduction of reality and nature itself. When Kazimir Malevich created the Black Square, a revolution took place in the art world — we could now paint not only what we see, but also what we think. This is precisely what makes the Black Square so famous — with it came a revolution in which artists moved from landscapes and portraits toward abstraction. And today we already observe the marked dominance of abstract painting. If, with landscapes, still lifes, and portraits, the question of nature and outer reality in the creative process is somewhat clearer, then with the rise of abstraction it once again becomes entirely unclear whether, and how, outer reality contributes to the creation of a painting. If an abstract painting is the expression of an idea within our psyche — then what does nature and outer reality have to do with it? And yet, in this text we examine precisely how nature creates a painting, so let us try to understand how nature creates any painting, even an abstract one. How did nature contribute to the creation of Malevich's Black Square, or, even more so, why would Malevich never have created the Black Square without the influence of outer reality?

We will try to explore these questions through Gaston Bachelard's conception of creativity, in which nature and outer reality play a decisive role at the very beginning of the creative act. Bachelard tries to explain how a person begins to create by offering the metaphor of Narcissus. Many of you have probably heard the myth in which Narcissus sees his reflection in the water, falls in love with it, and remains forever by the water's source. The scholar of creativity expands and reshapes this myth so that it metaphorically shows how a person begins to dream and, lost in this reverie, begins to create works of genius, including paintings. And in this metaphor, outer reality plays the decisive role.

According to Bachelard, archetypes — which we have already examined in earlier texts of this series — exist not only within the human collective unconscious, but also within objects. Speaking of objects, the scholar states that objects have a form — that which we see when we look at an object. But beneath that form there is also a dynamic matter — a symbolic part that affects us, which we do not see, but without which the object would lose its meaning, its essence. The dynamic matter of an object is an archetypal matter, charged with powerful symbolic energy. I believe many of you have heard of the four elements of the world — water, earth, fire, and air — which have played an important role throughout human history in reflecting on human existence. It is precisely these elements, which have accompanied humankind for most of its history, that became a symbol acting upon the human psyche through objects. “Let us make no mistake: the offending opponent is not necessarily human, for objects too provoke us,” says Bachelard. Objects “address” a person and provoke them; it is not only the person who takes up and works with the object, but the object too that has an effect on the person. What does this provoking outer reality, together with the metaphor of Narcissus, tell us about the beginning of creation?

A person who lives a purely personal life, whose creativity is untouched by archetypes, creates personal, individual art. Such art is not long-lasting — it is personal art. Art of genius, impersonal art, is created not through the lens of personal life, but through that which is foreign to personal life — by attempting to give form to a foreign, impersonal archetype of creation. But how can this archetype of creation be stirred so that art of genius becomes possible at all? Here we arrive at the point where nature plays a decisive role in the creative process. Bachelard's metaphor of Narcissus tells us that a person shut within their personal life is incapable of creating; they cannot reach the matter of the collective unconscious, the archetypes from which a wonderful painting is born. As soon as Narcissus approaches the water's source and looks into it, the water's source begins to provoke the personal Narcissus (the object provokes the person). The archetypal matter present in the water's source begins to interact with the archetypal matter within Narcissus's psyche, and Narcissus, without even sensing it, gradually begins to dream; the object's archetypal matter draws Narcissus ever deeper toward his own archetypal matter. In this way, provoked by the outer object, the water, Narcissus steps beyond the bounds of his personal life and begins to feel that he is more than mere personhood; he is complemented by an impersonal, symbolic, dynamic, potent matter arising from the collective unconscious. Once the water's source has stirred the archetypal matter within Narcissus's psyche, the possibility arises in Narcissus's creative life to create not only personal, but also impersonal, eternal, works of genius.

The myth of Narcissus, as expanded within the bounds of Bachelard's study of creativity, shows that a person could never reach the archetypal matter within their own psyche without encountering outer reality, an object that provokes them. It is precisely at the moment of encountering the object that a person begins to dream, reaching the state of creativity necessary for works of genius to be born. In this way, creation — a process taking place within the psyche — is fundamentally conditioned by outer reality. Within the context of this theory, outer reality was essential for Malevich to create the Black Square, a work that caused a revolution in the art world. Regardless of the painting's genre — realism or abstraction — the foundational role is played by the creative process itself, which begins when a person encounters a provoking object.

So what truly creates a painting? A painting is created by nature, the psyche, and the artist's personality. Nature initiates the creative process by awakening the archetype of creation in the artist's psyche — the symbolic and dynamic archetype of creation, supplying the matter for a work of genius, surges into the artist's consciousness — the artist's personality, according to its own capacity, either hinders or aids their art: in the first case, failing to realize the potentially genius painting, and in the second case, realizing this archetype of creation into the wonderful painting that we behold with our own eyes.

Text author: Anžela Duchovska