Under the Paint

In 2015, an X-ray study of the original looked straight through the black layer. Underneath sat two earlier paintings — one in Malevich's busy Cubo-Futurist style, one an early Suprematist try. He painted right over his own past, sealing his older selves beneath the radical simplicity of the square.

Time has not been kind to the canvas. The black surface is now laced with a fine web of cracks, and older color peeks through the gaps. Some viewers find this makes it stronger: the painting that tried to escape the physical world is visibly aging and breaking down, like any ordinary object after all.