Black and White

The extraordinary painting Black and White: Suprematist Composition (1915) by Kasimir Malevich (1879–1935) lies at the center of this compact volume. Recent conservation work has helped scholars to understand this single work better, and its story will help readers understand both the history of twentieth-century art and the process of keeping it in good health. Black and White was examined with optic and electron microscopes, spectroscopy and mass spectrometry, and, after having spent years rolled up, it was flattened on a vacuum table, after which loose paint around the edges was consolidated with tools as basic as a heated spatula and glue. But don't try this at home. Dr. Andrei Nakov, a pioneering Malevich expert and the author of Malevitch Écrits and Kazimir Malewicz: Catalogue raisonne writes about the history of the painting in an essay accompanied by 30 color plates.