Black Square (2003)
Gillian Carnegie (b. 1971)
Black Square (2003)
Oil on canvas
193 x 193 cm (assumed)
Private collection
Gillian Carnegie was shortlisted for the Turner prize in 2005. I went to the Tate Britain to see that show in person though I can’t recall who won, who else was shortlisted or even very much of Carnegie’s entry because one of her works made such a powerful impression on me that it’s pretty much all that I can recall. Black Square has haunted me ever since.
Carnegie’s work is large, dark and imposing. At almost 2 metres square, it’s taller than most of the people that will ever stand in front of it. Depending on how it’s lit it might not look like anything at all. Just a giant black void where a painting should be. Has her work been redacted? It’s just one colour: black oil on canvas, layered so think that the image itself is visible only because the brush strokes are carved into the paint like a relief. Unless the light is just right, you won’t even see it. You might need to move side to side, as if you’re viewing a lenticular.
On view in the ‘Among the Trees’ show at Hayward Gallery, 2020
The image, once you do see it, is fitting: a forest view at night. At least I interpret the time to be night, due to the lack of anything that indicates light. The main feature is a set of large, imposing tree trunks that block your view of almost everything behind them. I’ve seen three variations that she’s painted and each of them has the same effect on me. I feel like I’m being sucked into a black hole and can’t tear my eyes away from that ominous black square. But here’s the thing that anyone with an arts history degree has probably been screaming at their screen since they started reading this article: It’s been done before.
In 1915, Russian avant-garde artist Kazimir Malevich painted the first version (of four) of a painting made entirely out of black paint that he called, yup, Black Square. There’s no imagery to be found within the paint. It’s literally just a black square. It’s commonly cited as one of the seminal works of modern art and has influenced generations of painters. I was completely oblivious to that fact when I saw Carnegie’s work.
Sometimes I wonder just how much I’d have been enthralled by her black square if it hadn’t been the first all-black oil painting I’d ever seen. The first of anything that you experience often leaves a deeper imprint than the followers can ever fill. I have since seen other all-black paintings but I still haven’t see Malevich’s work in person. I’m not even sure if I want to. Like all the best remakes and reboots, Carnegie’s Black Square keeps the essence of the original while updating it with a more modern approach. More importantly, it happens to be the one that I grew up with, so to speak.
That’s why I like it.
To co-opt a phrase from the US Marine Corps, “This is my Black Square. There are many others like it, but this one is mine.”
Additional reading:
Previously, on Why I Like It:
Feb — Mattresses (2013-2014), Kaari Upson
Jan — The Cornershop (2014), Lucy Sparrow
Dec — Seurat & Pointillism