Painterly Realism of a Boy with a Knapsack – Color Masses in the Fourth Dimension

Kazimir Malevich

A world in turmoil and Malevich answers with two squares. Decades before Mondrian reduced modern art to geometry, the Russian Suprematists were liberating art from reality. The Suprematists above all were interested in feeling. The war was raging, Russia was in a period of immense change, and daily reality seemed an unappealing and tenuous construct. So they looked to emotion, unchained from anything else. Despite the tongue-in-cheek title, Malevich’s Black and Red Square is art in its barest form. There are no distractions, no memories, no allusions, there is only form and shape, and emotion. Not prescribed emotion, but engendered feeling. Malevich gives you almost nothing, and when you have nothing, the only option is to feel something.

Friday 31st July

Today, the Moon rises in the earth constellation of Capricorn before quickly moving into Aquarius. As it crosses the ecliptic path of the Sun, it reaches an ascending lunar node. Such moments are traditionally understood as periods of cosmic disturbance, when the usual rhythms of growth and activity become unsettled. Later in the day, Venus also crosses the ecliptic at a descending planetary node. Two nodes occurring on the same day is unusual and may bring a stronger sense of disruption, uncertainty, or heaviness. This is not a favourable day for working in the garden. Instead, allow the land to rest and turn your attention towards observation and reflection. The weight of the world may feel especially heavy, but gather your resolve, remain grounded, and remember the good that is still to come.