The Square

In the previous episodes we’ve thought in detail about the dot, and thus also about the round shape. In this exercise, we go a step further by considering what can fit into a circle. There’s a square in a circle. If we connect the four outermost poles within the circle with lines of equal length, it creates a square. You know the sketches of Leonardo da Vinci, in which he draws the Vitruvian man in a circle and forms a square in the circle. With this Vitruvian man, the center of the circle is exactly where the navel is. Contrary, the center of the square is formed by the sexual organs of the Vitruvian man. In the translated meaning this signifies that the square is earthbound, because at its center is the procreation.

Therefore, the square is a material symbol, as it represents the experience to the matter, to everything that has become earth. This meaning of the square is already existing in prehistoric finds. At the Magna Mater, the great goddess, in the belly area a set up square is to be seen, by which just the origin of the matter is symbolized. The same is the case in Chinese, where the disk of a compass is formed by a square, which symbolizes the earth, and the circle symbolizes the sky.

In the Christian context, the square is also seen as a symbol of the suffering of Jesus. An erected square with one edge down and Jesus crucified behind it is sometimes depicted above house entrances or even in churches. In this representation the symbolism of the earthly one is once again exaggerated.

But let’s go back to the secular, geometric language. What characterizes a square? In any case, the square has four sides of equal length. If you divide the square along the diagonal, you get two isosceles triangles. From the center point of the square you can draw a circle around it, which touches all for corners of the square. Those are the divisions that are possible in a square. If you place the compass at a corner of the square and take the side length of the square as the radius, you can draw a large circle. With a second circle from the opposite corner of the square you can divide this circle and create a leaf-like shape. You can try out the different possibilities of square and derive lot of geometric patterns. The square can be derived from a circle and in the same way it can be developed further. You can develop it into a cube, a rhombus, a parallelogram, a dragon square, or a rectangle.

The square is also connected with a constellation, namely with Pegasus. When you see the constellation of Pegasus in the autumn sky, the four main stars approximately form a square. Pegasus is one of the forty-eight constellations of ancient astronomy. It’s a mythological animal, the winged horse that sprang from the deadly Medusa after Perseus cut off her head. Pegasus then fled to Mount Olympus and has been carrying Zeus’ thunderbolts ever since.

In the history of art, too, we have a large field to plow with the square. For one thing, there’s Wassily Kandinsky, who associated the square with the color blue, because for him the square radiates calm. It’s something harmonious, earthbound, calming and thus he assigned the color blue to it. The square is particularly interwoven with the early Russian avant-garde, represented by Kazimir Malevich. Malevich saw abstraction specifically in the black square. In creating it in 1915 he threw everything overboard. He was reviled, he was ostracized, his colleagues were horrified, the art critics were horrified, and he was happy: “Didn’t I show everyone? I didn’t make anything that was before, and I didn’t make anything that is now, and I didn’t make anything that could be recognized. I’ve made nothing that one could fantasize into or imagine what it could be. Isn’t that fantastic?”, Malevich wrote.
Malevich thus radically removed all associations, all interpretations from the black square. Later came the red square, which stood for revolution, and the white square on a white canvas for total enlightenment and knowledge. Malevich then called this style and development Suprematism. Suprematism is a style of modernism that signifies the highest or elevation. There’s a little kinship with Futurism and Constructivism. Suprematism also contributed a great deal to the development of the Bauhaus.

However, for us it’s important that Malevich completely cut off all associations and any reference to nature in his black square. For our topic of nature and abstraction, we of course have to look to the masters who contributed to these abstractions at the beginning of the 20th century and signified perfect reduction. But here we see that Suprematism with the black square means something completely different. Not the importance and the relationship to nature, but the erasure of everything related to the living.
And now we stand in the 21st century and realize that this radical view of Malevich is unrivaled until today and was decisive for all currents that developed in the further course, especially in Formalism in the 70s, 80s and up to the 90s of the 20th century. However, today we can navigate between complete abstraction and highest realism. Malevich anticipated abstraction and nothingness, as we can see later in minimalism.

For this impulse, I invite you to play with the square in this freedom of the 21st century, on this basis of all the developments in art history and of what makes you you. Try to explore the perspectives of this square, try to subdivide, shape, form, shift, stretch, shrink, and enlarge it, whatever comes to your mind. You can do a whole series on the squares but try to do at least one very calm square.
This square has a specific place that corresponds with the drawing sheet. Of course, you can also use vital lines that you take from nature. For example, the sunflower is an approximately round shape, the button flower, the meadow button, the daisy. There are many of these round shapes and many little flowers from which you can derive the square and play with it, if you look carefully. As you know, it’s all about being aware of yourself, breathing well, preparing well and remaining with you attention at yourself. Then you simply start to play with the shape of the square that you derive from the circle. In doing so you’ll find a connection from the dot to the square.

I wish you many good ideas and a lot of fun while drawing. Keep in mind the vibration of the line!