White and black. Color illusions that deceive our brain (18 photos) Black circle on a white background

There are works of art that everyone knows. For the sake of these paintings, tourists stand in long lines in any weather, and then, once inside, they simply take a selfie in front of them. However, if you ask a tourist who has strayed from the group why he is so eager to look at the masterpiece, he is unlikely to explain why he suffered, pushed and suffered with the focal length. Often the fact is that due to the constant information noise around a particular work, its very essence is forgotten. Our task in the “Great and Incomprehensible” section is to remember why everyone should go to the Hermitage, the Louvre and the Uffizi.

The first painting in our section was the painting “Black Square” by Kazimir Malevich. It is perhaps the most famous and controversial work of Russian art, and at the same time the most recognizable in the West. Thus, a large-scale exhibition dedicated to the artist’s work is currently being held in London. The main exhibit was, of course, “Black Square”. It can even be argued that European critics associate Russian art not with Karl Bryullov and Ilya Repin, but with Malevich. At the same time, unfortunately, few visitors to the Tretyakov Gallery or the Hermitage can clearly say why this painting is so famous. Today we will try to fix this.

Kazimir Malevich (1879 - 1935) “Self-Portrait”. 1933

1. This is not"Black square", A"Black square on a white background"

And this is important. This fact is worth remembering like the Pythagorean theorem: it is unlikely to be useful in life, but not knowing it is somehow indecent.

K. Malevich “Black square on a white background.” 1915 Stored in the Tretyakov Gallery

2. It's not a square

At first, the artist called his painting “Quadrangle,” which is confirmed by linear geometry: there are no right angles, the sides are not parallel to each other, and the lines themselves are uneven. Thus he created a movable form. Although, of course, he knew how to use a ruler.

3. Why did Malevich draw a square?

In his memoirs, the artist writes that he did this unconsciously. However, the development of artistic thought can be traced through his paintings.

Malevich worked as a draftsman. It is not surprising that at first he was fascinated by cubism with its regular forms. For example, the painting from 1914 is “Composition with Gioconda.” Black and white rectangles are already appearing here.

On the left – Kazimir Malevich “Composition with Mona Lisa”. On the right is Leonardo da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa”, aka “La Gioconda”

Then, when creating the scenery for the opera “Victory over the Sun,” the idea of ​​a square as an independent element appeared. However, the painting “Black Square” appeared only two years later.

4. Why square?

Malevich believed that the square is the basis of all forms. If you follow the artist’s logic, the circle and the cross are already secondary elements: the rotation of the square forms a circle, and the movement of white and black planes forms a cross.

The paintings “Black Circle” and “Black Cross” were painted simultaneously with “Black Square”. All together they formed the basis of a new artistic system, but the primacy was always with the square.

“Black Square” – “Black Circle” – “Black Cross”

5. Why is the square black?

For Malevich, black is a mixture of all existing colors, while white is the absence of any color. Although, this completely contradicts the laws of optics. Everyone remembers how they told us at school that black color absorbs the rest, and white connects the entire spectrum. And then we did experiments with lenses, looking at the resulting rainbow. But with Malevich it’s the other way around.

6. What is Suprematism and how to understand it?

Malevich founded a new direction in art in the mid-1910s. He called it Suprematism, which means “supreme” in Latin. That is, in his opinion, this movement should have become the pinnacle of all creative searches of artists.

Suprematism is easy to recognize: various geometric shapes are combined into one dynamic, usually asymmetrical composition.

K. Malevich “Suprematism”. 1916
An example of one of the artist's many Suprematist compositions.

What does it mean? Such forms are usually perceived by the viewer as children's multi-colored cubes scattered on the floor. Agree, you can’t draw the same trees and houses for two thousand years. Art must find new forms of expression. And they are not always clear to ordinary people. For example, the paintings of the Little Dutch were once revolutionary and deeply conceptual. In still lifes, life philosophy was reflected through objects. However, now they are perceived rather as beautiful pictures; the modern viewer simply does not think about the deep meaning of the works.

Jan Davids de Heem "Breakfast with fruit and lobster." Second quarter of the 17th century.
Each element in Dutch still lifes carries a certain symbolic meaning. For example, lemon is a symbol of moderation.

This harmonious system collapses when one gets acquainted with the paintings of the avant-garde artists. The system “beautiful - not beautiful”, “realistic - not realistic” does not work here. The viewer has to think what these strange lines and circles on the canvas could mean. Although, in fact, there is no less meaning in lemons in Dutch still lifes, it’s just that museum visitors are not forced to figure it out. In 20th-century paintings, you must immediately understand the idea of ​​a work of art, which is much more difficult.

7. Was it really only Malevich who was so smart?

Malevich was not the first artist who began to create such paintings. Many masters of France, England and Russia were close to comprehending non-objective art. Thus, Mondrian created geometric compositions in 1913–1914, and the Swedish artist Hilma af Klint painted so-called color diagrams.

Hilma af Klint. From the series SUW (Stars and Universe). 1914 – 1915.

However, it was from Malevich that geometry acquired a clear philosophical overtones. His idea clearly followed from the previous artistic movement - cubism, where objects are divided into geometric shapes, and each of them is painted separately. In Suprematism, they stopped depicting the original form; artists switched to pure geometry.

Pablo Picasso "Three Women". 1908
An example of cubism. Here the artist does not yet abandon the prototype form - the human body. The figures look like the work of a sculptor-carpenter, who seemed to have created his work with an axe. Each “cut” of the sculpture is painted with a shade of red and does not go beyond the boundaries.

8. How can a square be movable?

Despite its external static nature, this painting is considered one of the most dynamic in the history of the Russian avant-garde.

According to the artist, the black square symbolizes pure form, and the white background symbolizes endless space. Malevich used the adjective “dynamic” to show that this form is in space. It's like a planet in the universe.

So the background and form are inseparable from each other: Malevich wrote that “the most important thing in Suprematism is two foundations - the energy of black and white, which serve to reveal the form of action.” (Malevich K. Collected works in 5 volumes. M., 1995. Volume 1. P. 187)

9. Why does “Black Square” have two dates of creation?

The canvas was created in 1915, although the author himself wrote 1913 on the reverse side. This was done, apparently, to bypass its competitors and establish primacy in the creation of Suprematist compositions. In fact, in 1913, the artist was designing the opera “Victory over the Sun,” and in his sketches, indeed, there was a black square as a symbol of this victory.

But the idea was realized in painting only in 1915. The painting was presented at the avant-garde exhibition “0, 10”, and the artist placed it in the red corner, a place where icons are usually hung in an Orthodox home. With this step, Malevich proclaimed the significance of the painting and was right: the painting became a turning point in the development of the avant-garde.

Photo taken at the exhibition “0, 10”. "Black Square" hangs in the red corner

10. Why is there a “Black Square” in both the Hermitage and the Tretyakov Gallery?

Malevich addressed the theme of the square several times, since for him it is the most important Suprematist form, after which in order of importance come the circle and the cross.

There are four “Black Squares” in the world, but they are not complete copies of each other. They differ in size, proportions and time of creation.

"Black square". 1923 Kept in the Russian Museum

The second “Black Square” was created in 1923 for the Venice Biennale. Then, in 1929, the artist created a third painting especially for his personal exhibition. It is believed that the director of the museum asked for it, because the original from 1915 was already covered with a network of cracks and craquelure. The artist did not like the idea, he refused, but then changed his mind. So there is one more square in the world.

"Black square". 1929 Stored in the Tretyakov Gallery

The last repetition was presumably created in 1931. No one knew about the existence of the fourth option until in 1993 a certain citizen came to the Samara branch of Inkombank and left this painting as collateral. The mysterious painting lover was never seen again: he never returned for the canvas. The painting began to belong to the bank. But not for long: he went bankrupt in 1998. The painting was bought and transferred to the Hermitage for storage.

"Black square". Early 1930s. Kept in the Hermitage

Thus, the first painting from 1915 and the third version from 1929 are kept in the Tretyakov Gallery, the second version in the Russian Museum, and the last in the Hermitage.

11. How did contemporaries react to “Black Square”?

If there is no longer any hope of understanding Malevich’s work, there is no need to be sad. Even the followers of the Russian avant-garde artist did not fully understand the artist’s deep intentions. The diaries of one of the master’s contemporaries, Vera Pestel, have survived to this day. She writes:

“Malevich simply painted a square and painted it entirely with pink paint, and another with black paint, and then many more squares and triangles of different colors. His room was elegant, all colorful, and it was nice for the eye to move from one color to another - all of different geometric shapes. How calm it was to look at the different squares, you didn’t think about anything, you didn’t want anything. The pink color made me happy, and next to it the black color made me happy too. And we liked it. We also became suprematists.” (Malevich about himself. Contemporaries about Malevich. Letters. Documents. Memoirs. Criticism. In 2 volumes. M., 2004. Volume 1. pp. 144-145)

This is the same as saying about still lifes of small Dutchmen - why think about it.

However, there are also more sensible comments. Despite the fact that not everyone understood the philosophical subtext of the painting, its significance was nevertheless appreciated. Andrei Bely said this about Suprematism:

“The history of painting and all these Vrubels in front of such squares are zero!” (Malevich about himself. Contemporaries about Malevich. Letters. Documents. Memoirs. Criticism. In 2 volumes. M., 2004. Volume 1. P. 108).

Alexandre Benois, founder of the World of Art movement, was extremely outraged by Malevich’s antics, but still understood the significance that the painting had acquired:

“A black square framed in white is the “icon” that gentlemen futurists offer in place of Madonnas and shameless Venuses. This is not a simple joke, not a simple challenge, but this is one of the acts of self-affirmation of that principle, which has its name in the abomination of desolation...” (Benoit A. The last futurist exhibition. From “Malevich about himself...” T.2. P.524)

In general, the painting made a double impression on the artist’s contemporaries.

12. Why can’t I draw “Black Square” and become famous?

You can draw, but you won’t be able to become famous. The meaning of modern art is not only to create something completely new, but also to present it correctly.

For example, black squares were painted before Malevich. In 1882, Paul Bealhold created a painting with the politically incorrect title “Night Fight of Negroes in the Basement.” Even earlier, in the 17th century, the English artist Flood painted the canvas “The Great Darkness.” But it was the Russian avant-garde artist who outlined the new philosophy with his painting and exploited it for several decades. Can you do this? Then go ahead.

Robert Flood "The Great Darkness" 1617

Paul Bealhold "Night Night Fight of Negroes in the Basement." 1882

You don't have to be a great artist to draw a black square on a white background. Yes, anyone can do this! But here’s the mystery: “Black Square” is the most famous painting in the world. Almost 100 years have passed since it was written, and disputes and heated discussions do not stop. Why is this happening? What is the true meaning and value of Malevich’s “Black Square”?

"Black square" is a dark rectangle

Malevich's "Black Square" was first presented to the public at a scandalous futurist exhibition in Petrograd in 1915. Among the artist’s other outlandish paintings, with mysterious phrases and numbers, with incomprehensible shapes and a jumble of figures, a black square in a white frame stood out for its simplicity. Initially, the work was called “black rectangle on a white background.” The name was later changed to "square", despite the fact that, from a geometric point of view, all sides of this figure are of different lengths and the square itself is slightly curved. Despite all these inaccuracies, none of its sides are parallel to the edges of the painting. And the dark color is the result of mixing various colors, among which there was no black. It is believed that this was not the author’s negligence, but a principled position, the desire to create a dynamic, mobile form.

"Black Square" is a failed painting

For the futuristic exhibition “0.10”, which opened in St. Petersburg on December 19, 1915, Malevich had to paint several paintings. Time was already running out, and the artist either did not have time to complete the painting for the exhibition, or was not happy with the result and, in the heat of the moment, covered it up by painting a black square. At that moment, one of his friends came into the studio and, seeing the painting, shouted “Brilliant!” After which Malevich decided to take advantage of the opportunity and came up with some higher meaning for his “Black Square”.

Hence the effect of cracked paint on the surface. There is no mysticism, the picture just didn’t work out.

Repeated attempts were made to examine the canvas to find the original version under the top layer. However, scientists, critics and art historians believed that irreparable damage could be caused to the masterpiece and in every possible way prevented further examinations.

“Black square” is a multi-colored cube

Kazimir Malevich has repeatedly stated that the painting was created by him under the influence of the unconscious, a kind of “cosmic consciousness”. Some argue that only the square in the “Black Square” is seen by people with underdeveloped imagination. If, when considering this picture, you go beyond traditional perception, go beyond the visible, then you will understand that in front of you is not a black square, but a multi-colored cube.

The secret meaning embedded in the “Black Square” can then be formulated as follows: the world around us, only at the first, superficial glance, looks flat and black and white. If a person perceives the world in volume and in all its colors, his life will change dramatically. Millions of people, who, according to them, were instinctively attracted to this picture, subconsciously felt the volume and colorfulness of the “Black Square”.

Black color absorbs all other colors, so it is quite difficult to see a multi-colored cube in a black square. And to see the white behind the black, the truth behind the lies, life behind death is many times more difficult. But the one who manages to do this will discover a great philosophical formula.

"Black Square" is a riot in art

At the time the painting appeared in Russia, there was a dominance of artists of the Cubist school.

Cubism (fr. Cubisme) is a modernist movement in fine art, characterized by the use of emphatically geometrized conventional forms, the desire to “split” real objects into stereometric primitives. The founders and largest representatives of which were Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. The term “cubism” arose from a criticism of the work of J. Braque that he reduced “cities, houses and figures to geometric patterns and cubes.”

Pablo Picasso, "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon"

Juan Gris "Man in a Cafe"

Cubism reached its apogee, all the artists were already quite fed up, and new artistic directions began to appear. One of these trends was Malevich’s Suprematism and the “Black Suprematist Square” as its vivid embodiment. The term “suprematism” comes from the Latin suprem, which means dominance, superiority of color over all other properties of painting. Suprematist paintings are non-objective painting, an act of “pure creativity”.

At the same time, the “Black Circle” and “Black Cross” were created and exhibited at the same exhibition, representing the three main elements of the Suprematist system. Later, two more Suprematist squares were created - red and white.

"Black Square", "Black Circle" and "Black Cross"

Suprematism became one of the central phenomena of the Russian avant-garde. Many talented artists experienced his influence. Rumor has it that Picasso lost interest in Cubism after he saw Malevich’s “square.”

“Black Square” is an example of brilliant PR

Kazimir Malevich understood the essence of the future of modern art: it doesn’t matter what, the main thing is how to present it and sell it.

Artists have been experimenting with the color “all black” since the 17th century.

The first is a tightly black work of art called "Great Darkness" wrote Robert Fludd in 1617

He was followed in 1843 by

Bertal and his work " View of La Hougue (under the cover of night)". More than two hundred years later. And then almost without interruption -

"The Twilight History of Russia" by Gustave Doré in 1854, “Night Fight of Negroes in a Cellar” by Paul Bealhold in 1882, a completely plagiarized “Battle of Negroes in a Cave in the Dead of Night” by Alphonse Allais. And only in 1915 Kazimir Malevich presented his “Black Suprematist Square” to the public. And it is his painting that is known to everyone, while others are known only to art historians. The extravagant trick made Malevich famous throughout the centuries.

Subsequently, Malevich painted at least four versions of his “Black Square”, differing in design, texture and color, in the hope of repeating and increasing the success of the painting.

"Black Square" is a political move

Kazimir Malevich was a subtle strategist and skillfully adapted to the changing situation in the country. Numerous black squares painted by other artists during Tsarist Russia remained unnoticed. In 1915, Malevich’s square acquired a completely new meaning, relevant to its time: the artist proposed revolutionary art for the benefit of a new people and a new era.
“Square” has almost nothing to do with art in its usual sense. The very fact of its writing is a declaration of the end of traditional art. A cultural Bolshevik, Malevich met the new government halfway, and the government believed him. Before the arrival of Stalin, Malevich held honorary positions and successfully rose to the rank of People's Commissar of the IZO NARKOMPROS.

"Black Square" is a refusal of content

The painting marked a clear transition to awareness of the role of formalism in the visual arts. Formalism is the rejection of literal content for the sake of artistic form. An artist, when painting a picture, thinks not so much in terms of “context” and “content”, but rather in terms of “balance”, “perspective”, “dynamic tension”. What Malevich recognized and his contemporaries did not recognize is de facto for modern artists and “just a square” for everyone else.

“Black Square” is a challenge to Orthodoxy

The painting was first presented at the futuristic exhibition “0.10” in December 1915. along with 39 other works by Malevich. The “Black Square” hung in the most prominent place, in the so-called “red corner”, where icons were hung in Russian houses according to Orthodox traditions. There art critics “stumbled upon” him. Many perceived the picture as a challenge to Orthodoxy and an anti-Christian gesture. The greatest art critic of that time, Alexander Benois, wrote: “Undoubtedly, this is the icon that the futurists, gentlemen, put in place of the Madonna.”

Exhibition "0.10". Petersburg. December 1915

“Black Square” is a crisis of ideas in art

Malevich is called almost the guru of modern art and is accused of the death of traditional culture. Today, any daredevil can call himself an artist and declare that his “works” have the highest artistic value.

Art has outlived its usefulness and many critics agree that after “Black Square” nothing outstanding was created. Most artists of the twentieth century lost inspiration, many were in prison, exile or emigration.

“Black Square” is total emptiness, a black hole, death. They say that Malevich, after writing “Black Square,” told everyone for a long time that he could neither eat nor sleep. And he himself doesn’t understand what he did. Subsequently, he wrote 5 volumes of philosophical reflections on the topic of art and existence.

"Black Square" is quackery

Charlatans successfully fool the public into believing something that is not actually there. They declare those who do not believe them to be stupid, backward, and uncomprehending dullards who are inaccessible to the lofty and beautiful. This is called the "naked king effect." Everyone is ashamed to say that this is bullshit, because they will laugh.

And the most primitive design - a square - can be ascribed with any deep meaning; the scope for human imagination is simply limitless. Not understanding what the great meaning of “Black Square” is, many people need to invent it for themselves so that they have something to admire when looking at the picture.

The painting, painted by Malevich in 1915, remains perhaps the most discussed painting in Russian painting. For some, “Black Square” is a rectangular trapezoid, but for others it is a deep philosophical message encrypted by the great artist.

Alternative opinions worthy of attention (from various sources):

- "The simplest and most essential idea of ​​this work, its compositional and theoretical meaning. Malevich was a famous theorist and teacher of composition theory. The square is the simplest figure for visual perception - a figure with equal sides, therefore it is with it that novice artists begin to take steps. When they are given the first tasks in the theory of composition, on horizontal and vertical rhythms. gradually complicating tasks and shapes - rectangle, circle, polygons. So the square is the basis of everything, and black because nothing else can be added. "(WITH)

- Some comrades claim that this is a pixel(jokingly, of course). Pixel (English pixel - short for pix element, in some sources picture cell) is the smallest element of a two-dimensional digital image in raster graphics. That is, any drawings and any inscriptions that we see on the screen when enlarged consist of pixels, and Malevich was something of a seer.

- Personal "epiphany" of the artist.

The beginning of the 20th century marked an era of great upheavals, a turning point in people's worldview and their attitude to reality. The world was in a state when the old ideals of beautiful classical art had completely faded and there was no return to them, and the birth of a new one was predicted by great revolutions in painting. There was a movement from realism and impressionism, as the transfer of sensations, to abstract painting. those. First, humanity depicts objects, then sensations and, finally, ideas.

Malevich’s black square turned out to be a timely fruit of the artist’s insight, who managed to create the foundations of the future language of art with this simplest geometric figure, which conceals many other forms. By rotating the square in a circle, Malevich obtained the geometric figures of a cross and a circle. When rotating along the axis of symmetry, I got a cylinder. A seemingly flat, elementary square contains not only other geometric shapes, but can create three-dimensional bodies. A black square, dressed in a white frame, is nothing more than the fruit of the creator’s insight and his thoughts about the future of art... (C)

- This picture, undoubtedly, is and will be a mysterious, attractive, always living and pulsating object of human attention. It is valuable because it has a huge number of degrees of freedom, where Malevich’s own theory is a special case of explaining this picture. It has such qualities, is filled with such energy, that it makes it possible to explain and interpret it an infinite number of times at any intellectual level. And most importantly, to provoke people to creativity. A huge number of books, articles, etc. have been written about the “Black Square”, many paintings have been created inspired by this thing, the more time passes from the day it was written, the more we need this riddle, which does not have a solution or, conversely, has an infinite number of them .
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p.s. If you look closely, you can see other tones and colors through the craquelure of the paint. It is quite possible that there was a painting underneath this dark mass, but all attempts to illuminate this painting with something were unsuccessful. The only thing that is certain is that there are some figures or patterns, a long stripe, something very fuzzy. Which may well not be the painting underneath the painting, but simply the bottom layer of the square itself, and the patterns could have been formed during the drawing process :)

Which idea is closest to you?

What attracts Malevich’s primitive suprematism? Precisely because it is primitive to the point of disgrace. An elementary, simplest image can give rise to the viewer’s own versions, guesses and additions with a minimum of imagination. This also applies to “The Black Circle,” which is no less interesting than its square brother, and for me, even more so.

Everyone knows the black square of Kazimir Malevich. What is his “Black Circle”?
Malevich wrote the second version of this brilliant, complex work (like the 2nd version of the Black Square) with the help of his students A. Leporskaya, K. Rozhdestvensky and N. Suetin. He couldn't have done it alone. Apparently, Rozhdestvensky was stretching the stretcher, Leporskaya was priming the canvas, and Suetin got hold of a compass. All Malevich had to do was take black paint and work as a painter for about five minutes. The first version was painted eight years earlier, but the circle came out crooked then; apparently Malevich did not yet have a compass, so he had to cover the canvas with a copper basin and somehow trace it around the edge.

What is this work about? It's hard to believe, but nevertheless, it's... about a black circle! It was not difficult for Malevich to present the concept of the work; he was an unsurpassed master of spreading noodles. Everyone can draw geometric figures; only a few can present them as something outstanding.

Malevich was born on February 23, which annually darkens the day of the Soviet Army, due to his evasion of military duty. He died on May 15, which annually overshadows my and Mikhail Bulgakov’s birthday. In total, he lived only 56 years, not having time to depict all the variants of geometric figures. Specifically, it has a black square on a white background, a white square on a white background, a black circle on a white background... but no "Black circle on a black background"! And I decided to fill this gap (if you can call this mob a gap). He is in front of you.

“Do you see the gopher? And I don’t see it. But it’s there!” (Hera Lieberman) Do you see the black circle? And I don't see. But he is. And a meticulous viewer will notice this. This is the whole point of the picture, that is, not everything you don’t see is not there. Another name is “Black hole in a black square, or Activated carbon in the ass of an African American sitting in a dark cave on a moonless night.” Is the title politically correct? Quite. But the novel "Ten Little Indians" is racist, it should be renamed "Ten African-American Children."

I don’t know about others, but I’m terribly bored contemplating these “masterpieces” by Malevich, so I’m exhibiting my variations of “The Black Circle.” How to “revive” a black circle with minimal means, to make a non-objective painting objective? Here are some examples. Here, extensive conceptual explanations are not required, everything is as clear as the white night in St. Petersburg. Not every viewer has limitless imagination, and when looking at Malevich’s masterpieces, not a single image comes to mind for many of them. So I decided to help such a viewer looking at the black circle.

"Black Balloon" I don't remember if there are black balloons? Well, for example, at a GOT meeting, or at an oil worker’s holiday, or you can tie him to a hearse, so that it won’t be so gloomy...

And this is a paradoxical version of the black ball: “Black weight”. She is unliftable and at the same time weightless, she floats. But if the thread breaks, then run away in all directions!

"Rockfall or Rolling Stones." Malevich's painting is untouched, but the image of a flying stone is there.

"Black smiley face" Malevich was one step away from the invention of emoticons. At least black ones.

"Malevich's watch." There may be more options here, but many have probably already been used in watch design.

"Sewerage". And I remember that Malevich argued that he depicted the depths of the Universe. Unless the sewer system is also a kind of universe of deep worlds.

"Black Moon". A real negative photo of the Moon was used. Reminiscent of outlandish, decorative flowers in the manner of M. Vrubel; there is something to look at, unlike the original.

"Black Malevich under pink Picasso." This refers to the pink period of Pablo Picasso's work. "Girl on a Ball" was written ten years before Malevich's "ball", possibly influencing the latter.

"Core". If you remove the cannon, it will also pass for an athlete’s throwing projectile, both as a cannonball and as a disc.

Here is the Suprematist composition “Four white circles on a black circle in a white square.” However, if you have a white shirt with black buttons, you can watch many copies of this composition for hours.

Similar to the previous one, “White circle on a black circle on a white square.” Suprematism at its finest! If Malevich had written it, it would have been a masterpiece for centuries! If it weren’t for one circumstance, this masterpiece is now displayed everywhere, at any tire shop you come across. It’s a pity, such a beautiful, elegant name, not to mention the stupid “Tire Fitting”!

"Black target" This version of the “Black Circle” will last much longer for any military man, not to mention biathletes. And if a place for a small shooting gallery is fenced off near the picture, then the profit from viewing such a “Malevich” will greatly increase.

And this composition is called "Crisis". It is already hanging and ready to burst. A crisis is never white or pink, it is always black.

How to get rid of a crisis? It's pretty simple. The crisis needs to be turned over and bitten off. Let's add a leaf - and now we are faced not with a crisis, but with an elegant, expensive Apple device. Now the main thing is not to turn it back, otherwise the crisis will return, but already broken out!

"Weapons of the proletariat." Composition of Suprematist symbolism. The circle, having acquired the gear teeth, symbolizes mechanical engineering and the sun of Soviet industry. Another object symbolizes a tool, a worker’s key, while at the same time resembling the crosshairs of a hammer and sickle - the weapon of a worker and a collective farmer. If only Malevich had painted such a picture in time, the coat of arms of the USSR would undoubtedly have looked different. Perhaps this is what it would look like, one to one. Well, for those snickering bourgeoisie who don’t like the symbols of the Soviet proletarian, there is a simpler name: “Beer.”

"Kutuzov Suprematist. Portrait of a Field Marshal." Someone will say: this is not a portrait - where is Kutuzov himself? I will answer: firstly, the bandage is specifically for Kutuzov’s right missing eye. Secondly, every second viewer will catch the connection with Kutuzov, which means the portrait is quite similar.

A minimum of actions with the previous picture - and we already have scrambled eggs for breakfast. Let's call it "Kutuzov's fried egg". If the classic fried egg has both “eyes”, then the Kutuzovsky fried egg must be made from one egg! Scientifically speaking: mono-fried eggs. For those who are on a diet.

"Sisyphus" Well, many people know this. This is such a hefty but stupid ancient Greek who did not think to use the lever. The ancient Greek shamefully failed to live up to the saying “you have strength, but you don’t need intelligence.”

The most important property of our eye is its ability to distinguish colors. One of the properties related to color vision can be considered the phenomenon of a shift in the maximum relative visibility during the transition from daylight to twilight vision.

With twilight vision (low light levels), not only does the sensitivity of the eye to the perception of colors in general decrease, but also under these conditions the eye has a decreased sensitivity to the colors of the long-wavelength part of the visible spectrum (red, orange) and increased sensitivity to the colors of the short-wavelength part of the spectrum (blue, violet) .

We can point to a number of cases where, when looking at colored objects, we also encounter visual errors or illusions.

Firstly, sometimes we mistakenly judge the color saturation of an object by the brightness of the background or by the color of other objects surrounding it. In this case, the laws of brightness contrast also apply: the color brightens against a dark background and darkens against a light one.
The great artist and scientist Leonardo da Vinci wrote: “Of colors of equal whiteness, the one that appears lighter will appear against a darker background, and black will appear gloomier against a background of greater whiteness. And red will appear more fiery against a darker background, and also all colors surrounded by their exact opposites."

Secondly, there is the concept of actual color or chromatic contrasts, when the color of the object we observe changes depending on the background against which we observe it. There are many examples of the effects of color contrasts on the eye. Goethe, for example, writes: “The grass growing in a courtyard paved with gray limestone appears to be an infinitely beautiful green color when the evening clouds cast a reddish, barely noticeable glow on the stones.” The additional color of dawn is green; This contrasting green color mixes with the green color of the grass and gives an “infinitely beautiful green color.”

Goethe also describes the phenomenon of so-called “colored shadows”. "One of the most beautiful cases of colored shadows can be observed during the full moon. Candlelight and moonlight can be completely equal in intensity. Both shadows can be made of the same strength and clarity, so that both colors will be completely balanced. Place the screen so that the light is full the moon fell directly on it, the candle is placed somewhat to the side at the appropriate distance, some transparent body is held in front of the screen. Then a double shadow appears, and the one cast by the moon and which at the same time is illuminated by the candle appears to be of a pronounced reddish-dark color. color, and, conversely, the one that is cast by a candle, but illuminated by the moon, is of the most beautiful blue color. Where both shadows meet and unite into one, a black shadow is obtained."

Illusions associated with the structural features of the eye.

Look at the picture (below) close to the right edge of the monitor

Blind spot.

The presence of a blind spot on the retina of the eye was first discovered in 1668 by the famous French physicist E. Mariotte. Marriott describes his experience in verifying the presence of a blind spot as follows:

“I attached a small circle of white paper on a dark background, approximately at eye level, and at the same time asked to hold another circle to the side of the first, to the right at a distance of about two feet), but somewhat lower so that its image fell on the optic nerve of my right eye, while I closed my left eye. I stood opposite the first circle and gradually moved away, without taking my right eye off it. When I was at a distance of 9 feet, the second circle, which was about 4 inches in size, completely disappeared from view. I did not I could attribute this to his lateral position, for I could distinguish other objects that were even more to the side than he was; I would have thought that it had been removed if I had not found it again at the slightest movement of my eyes."

It is known that Marriott amused the English king Charles II and his courtiers by teaching them to see each other without heads. The retina of the eye, where the optic nerve enters the eye, does not have the light-sensitive endings of nerve fibers (rods and cones). Consequently, images of objects falling on this place of the retina are not transmitted to the brain.

Here's another interesting example. In fact, the circle is perfectly smooth. We need to squint and we see it.

Optical effect of color.

This effect includes illusions or optical phenomena caused by color and changing the appearance of objects. Considering the optical phenomena of color, all colors can be divided into two groups: red and blue, because Basically, colors in their optical properties will gravitate towards one of these groups. The exception is green. Light colors, such as white or yellow, create an irradiation effect, they seem to spread to the darker colors located next to them and reduce the surfaces painted in these colors. For example, if a ray of light penetrates through a crack in a plank wall, the crack appears wider than it actually is. When the sun shines through the branches of trees, the branches appear thinner than usual.

This phenomenon plays a significant role in the design of fonts. While the letters E and F, for example, retain their full height, the height of letters such as O and G are reduced somewhat, further reduced by the sharp ends of the letters A and V. These letters appear lower than the overall height of the line. So that they appear to be the same height as the rest of the letters of the line, when marking them, they are moved slightly up or down beyond the aisles of the line. The irradiation effect also explains the different impressions of surfaces covered with transverse or longitudinal stripes. A field with transverse stripes appears lower than a field with longitudinal stripes, since the white color surrounding the field penetrates at the top and bottom between the stripes and visually reduces the height of the field.

Main optical features of the red and blue color groups.

Yellow visually, as it were, lifts the surface. It also seems more extensive due to the irradiation effect. The red color is approaching us, blue, on the contrary, is moving away. The planes, painted in dark blue, purple and black, visually decrease in size and move downward.

Green color- the most calm of all colors.

It should also be noted that the centrifugal movement is yellow and the centripetal movement is blue.

The first color pricks the eyes, the second color drowns the eye. This effect increases if we add to it the difference in lightness and darkness, i.e. the effect of yellow will increase when white is added to it, blue - when it is darkened with black.

Academician S.I. Vavilov writes about the structure of the eye: “How simple is the optical part of the eye, so complex is its perceptive mechanism. Not only do we not know the physiological meaning of individual elements of the retina, but we are not able to say how appropriate the spatial distribution of light-sensitive cells is to what needs a blind spot, etc. What we have before us is not an artificial physical device, but a living organ in which advantages are mixed with disadvantages, but everything is inextricably linked into a living whole.”

A blind spot, it would seem, should prevent us from seeing the entire object, but under normal conditions we do not notice this.

Firstly, because the images of objects falling on the blind spot in one eye are not projected onto the blind spot in the other; secondly, because the falling out parts of objects are involuntarily filled with images of neighboring parts that are in the field of view. If, for example, when examining black horizontal lines, some areas of the image of these lines on the retina of one eye fall on a blind spot, then we will not see a break in these lines, since our other eye will compensate for the shortcomings of the first. Even when observing with one eye, our mind compensates for the deficiency of the retina and the disappearance of some details of objects from the field of vision does not reach our consciousness.
The blind spot is quite large (at a distance of two meters from the observer, even a person’s face can disappear from the field of view), however, under normal vision conditions, the mobility of our eyes eliminates this “disadvantage” of the retina.

Irradiation

The phenomenon of irradiation is that light objects against a dark background seem enlarged compared to their actual size and seem to capture part of the dark background. This phenomenon has been known since very ancient times. Even Vitruvius (1st century BC), an architect and engineer of Ancient Rome, pointed out in his writings that when dark and light are combined, “light devours darkness.” On our retina, light partially captures the space occupied by shadow. The initial explanation for the phenomenon of irradiation was given by R. Descartes, who argued that an increase in the size of light objects occurs as a result of the spread of physiological excitation to places adjacent to the directly irritated area of ​​the retina.
However, this explanation is currently being replaced by a new, more strict one, formulated by Helmholtz, according to which the following circumstances are the root cause of irradiation. Each luminous point is depicted on the retina of the eye in the form of a small circle of scattering due to the imperfection of the lens (aberration, from Latin - deviation), inaccurate accommodation, etc. When we look at a light surface on a dark background, due to aberration scattering, the boundaries seem to expand this surface, and the surface seems to us larger than its true geometric dimensions; it seems to extend across the edges of the dark background surrounding it.

The effect of irradiation is more pronounced the worse the eye is accommodated. Due to the presence of light scattering circles on the retina, under certain conditions (for example, very thin black threads), dark objects on a light background can also be subject to illusory exaggeration - this is the so-called negative irradiation. There are a lot of examples when we can observe the phenomenon of irradiation; it is not possible to give them in full here.

The great Italian artist, scientist and engineer Leonardo da Vinci in his notes says the following about the phenomenon of irradiation: “When the Sun is visible behind leafless trees, all their branches located opposite the solar body are so reduced that they become invisible, the same will happen with a shaft placed between the eye and the solar body. I saw a woman dressed in black, with a white bandage on her head, the latter appearing twice as large as the width of the shoulders of the woman, who were dressed in black. If from a great distance we view the battlements of the fortresses, separated from each other by intervals equal to the width of these teeth, then the intervals seem much larger than the teeth...".

The great German poet Goethe points out a number of cases of observations of the phenomenon of irradiation in nature in his treatise “The Doctrine of Colors”. He writes about this phenomenon as follows: “A dark object seems smaller than a light one of the same size. If we simultaneously consider a white circle on a black background and a black circle of the same diameter on a white background, then the latter seems to us to be approximately 1/2 smaller than the first. If the black circle is made correspondingly larger, they will appear equal. The young crescent moon appears to belong to a circle of a larger diameter than the rest of the dark part of the moon, which is sometimes visible."

The phenomenon of irradiation during astronomical observations makes it difficult to observe thin black lines on objects of observation; in such cases it is necessary to aperture the telescope lens. Physicists, due to the phenomenon of irradiation, do not see the thin peripheral rings of the diffraction pattern. People appear thinner in a dark dress than in a light one. Light sources visible from behind the edge produce an apparent cutout in it. The ruler, from behind which the candle flame appears, is represented with a notch in this place. The rising and setting sun makes a hole in the horizon.

A few more examples.

The black thread, if held in front of a bright flame, seems to be broken at this point; the hot filament of an incandescent lamp seems thicker than it actually is; light wire against a dark background appears thicker than against a light one. The sashes in the window frames appear smaller than they really are. A statue cast in bronze appears smaller than one made from plaster or white marble.

The architects of Ancient Greece made the corner columns of their buildings thicker than others, taking into account that these columns from many points of view would be visible against the background of a bright sky and, due to the phenomenon of irradiation, would appear thinner. We are subjected to a kind of illusion in relation to the apparent size of the Sun. Artists, as a rule, paint the Sun as too large compared to other depicted objects. On the other hand, in photographic landscape photographs in which the Sun is depicted, it appears to us unnaturally small, although the lens gives a correct image of it.
Note that the phenomenon of negative irradiation can be observed in cases where a black thread or slightly shiny metal wire appears thicker on a white background than on a black or gray one. If, for example, a lacemaker wants to show her art, then it is better for her to make lace from black threads and spread it on a white lining. If we observe wires against a background of parallel dark lines, such as a tile roof or brickwork, the wires appear thickened and broken where they intersect each of the dark lines.

These effects are also observed when the wires are superimposed in the field of view on a clear outline of the building. Probably, the phenomenon of irradiation is associated not only with the aberration properties of the lens, but also with the scattering and refraction of light in the media of the eye (the layer of liquid between the eyelid and the cornea, the media filling the anterior chamber and the entire inside of the eye). Therefore, the irradiation properties of the eye are obviously related to its resolving power and radiant perception of “point” light sources. The ability of the eye to overestimate sharp angles is associated with aberration properties, and therefore partly with the phenomenon of irradiation.

Astigmatism of the eye.

Astigmatism of the eye is a defect of the eye, usually caused by the non-spherical (toric) shape of the cornea and sometimes the non-spherical shape of the surfaces of the lens. Astigmatism in the human eye was first discovered in 1801 by the English physicist T. Young. In the presence of this defect (by the way, not all people manifest it in a sharp form), there is no point focusing of rays falling parallel to the eye due to different refraction of light by the cornea in different sections. Severe astigmatism is corrected by glasses with cylindrical glasses, which refract light rays only in the direction perpendicular to the axis of the cylinder.

Eyes completely free from this defect are rare in people, as can be easily seen. To test the eyes for astigmatism, ophthalmologists often use a special table, where twelve circles have shading of equal thickness at equal intervals. An eye with astigmatism will see the lines of one or more circles blacker. The direction of these blacker lines allows us to draw a conclusion about the nature of the astigmatism of the eye.

If astigmatism is due to the non-spherical shape of the lens surface, then when moving from clear vision of horizontal objects to viewing vertical objects, a person must change the accommodation of the eyes. Most often, the distance of clear vision of vertical objects is less than horizontal ones.

Take a look from afar look at the drawing and say: how many black circles could fit in the free space between the bottom circle and one of the top circles - four or five? Most likely you will answer that four mugs will fit freely, but for the fifth, perhaps, there will not be enough space. When they tell you that exactly three mugs fit in the gap, no more, you won’t believe it. Take a piece of paper or a compass and see that you are wrong.

This strange illusion, due to which black areas appear smaller to our eyes than white areas of the same size, is called “irradiation”. It depends on the imperfection of our eye, which, as an optical apparatus, does not fully meet the strict requirements of optics. Its refractive media do not produce on the retina those sharp contours that are obtained on the frosted glass of a well-tuned photographic apparatus: due to the so-called spherical aberration each light contour is surrounded by a light border, which increases its size on the retina of the eye. As a result, light areas always seem larger to us than their equal black areas.

In his “Doctrine of Flowers,” the great poet Goethe, who was a keen observer of nature (although not always a sufficiently cautious theoretical physicist), writes about this phenomenon as follows:

“A dark object appears smaller than a light one of the same size. If we simultaneously consider a white circle on a black background and a black circle of the same diameter on a white background, then the latter will seem to us to be about 1/5 smaller than the first. If the black circle is made correspondingly larger, they will appear equal. The young crescent of the Moon seems to belong to a circle of a larger diameter than the rest of the dark part of the Moon, which is sometimes visible (“ash light” of the Moon. - Ya.P.). People appear thinner in a dark dress than in a light one. Light sources visible from behind the edge produce an apparent cutout in it. The ruler, from behind which the candle flame appears, is represented with a notch in this place. The rising and setting sun makes a hole in the horizon.”

Everything in these observations is correct, except for the statement that the white circle always seems larger than the equal black one by the same fraction. The increase depends on the distance from which the mugs are viewed. Now it will become clear why this is so.

Move the drawing with black circles further away from your eyes - the illusion will become even stronger, even more striking. This is explained by the fact that the width of the additional border always remains the same; if, therefore, at a close distance it increased the width of the light area by only 10%, then at a far distance, when the image itself becomes smaller, the same addition will no longer be 10%, but, say, 30% or even 50% of its width. This feature of our eye is usually used to explain the strange property of the following picture. Looking at it closely, you see many white circles on a black field. But move the book further away and look at the drawing from a distance of 2-3 steps, and if you have very good eyesight, then from a distance of 6-8 steps; the figure will noticeably change its appearance: instead of circles, you will see white hexagons in it, like bee cells.

I am not entirely satisfied with the explanation of this illusion by irradiation, since I noticed that black circles on a white background also appear hexagonal from a distance (see figure below), although irradiation here does not increase, but reduces mugs. It must be said that in general, existing explanations of visual illusions cannot be considered final; Most illusions have no explanation at all.