The Scenes of the Two. I Black square on white square

Abstract

By drawing on the argument developed in Gerald Wajcman's book L'objet du sičcle, the author elaborates the figure of the subject appropriate to that what Wajcman presents as the object of the century, namely the painting by Kasimir Malevich “Black square on white ground”. The article argues that Malevich's painting presents the appearance of the subject at precisely the moment at which the black sqare emerges against the white ground. The black square which at first presents itself to the spectator's gaze as a black stain seems to be telling to the spectator: What you see is yourself qua subject. The painting by Malevichs teaches the spectator to open his/her eyes, indeed, it opens the spectator's eyes by making it possible for us, for our gaze, to appear in the painting.