"Within the black square." Photo exhibition of Boris Sysoev

July 24, 2018 in the exhibition halls of the Russian Academy of Arts (Prechistenka 21) will open a unique exhibition of works by a member of the Moscow Union of Artists, Honorary Member of the Russian Academy of Arts, photographer Boris Grigoryevich Sysoev - “Within the Black Square”.

According to the author’s idea, each photo portrait presented at the exhibition has a specific format - it repeats the original size of the “Black Square” by Kazimir Malevich. Viewers will discover the meaning of the Suprematist “cell”, they will witness how the “zero forms” will be filled with concrete and non-objective at the same time.

The exposition will comprise more than 30 works, where "within the black square" will be the faces of famous artists, poets, actors, artists - personalities who have become original "icons" of their time, the focus of modern culture.

“I think it will not be a big exaggeration if I say that the“ Black Square ”by Kazimir Malevich is, on the one hand, the most cited, but at the same time the most controversial work of the beginning of the 20th century.

In 1915, Malevich took the position of a complete break with objectivity, reinforced by the declaration of the black square as “zero forms”: “I transformed into zero forms, and went beyond zero to pointless creativity.”

In the original suprematist doctrine of the artist, the meaning of zero extended from "nothing" to "everything." In addition to this, the “zero” value of the black square consisted in the fact that it became the basic form, the Suprematist “cell”, as Malevich himself called it.

In Suprematism, a black square on a white background meant “zero”, firstly, because it marked the beginning of pointlessness, and secondly, the end of the artist’s traditional objective thinking. Since then, the square has become a symbolic form of Suprematism and a zero reference point. Such was his plastic laconicism. At the same time, the square was also a “zero” expression of color - black “non-color” on white, understood by the artist as the “desert of nothingness”.

Thinking about all this, I decided to put in a “zero of forms” - a black square - a kind of “zero of life” - a chicken egg. And, developing the idea, filling it with meaning, he began to put into this space the portraits of artists I made.

At first, these were portraits of "artless artists", the successors of Malevich’s work. But in the course of disputes and discussions, an understanding was born that almost all modern artists left the Black Square, as well as writers from Gogol’s “Overcoat”. Later portraits of poets, writers, and musicians appeared - people who were not ordinary in their work.

Yes, you can argue with that, but that’s what I really want.

Sincerely, Your Boris Sysoev. "

Boris Grigorievich Sysoev (born 1950) - professional photographer and journalist, Honorary Member of the Russian Academy of Arts, member of the Moscow Union of Artists.

A graduate of the faculty of photojournalism of the Institute of Journalism at the Union of Journalists of the USSR. In his youth, he collaborated with the State Tretyakov Gallery.

He worked in a number of all-Union and all-Russian media. He is the author of photo reports and individual photographs for many newspapers and magazines, including such well-known ones as “Twinkle” and “Paris Match”.

For twelve years he was a photographer for the Easter Festival under the leadership of Valery Gergiev.

He participated in the design of books, booklets and advertising publications of many artists, poets - I. Huberman, A. Livanov, P. Nikonov, A. Michri, I. Vikhansky, V. Maloletkov, A. Shmarinov, O. Vukolov, N. Nikogosyan and other authors.

Active participant in the capital’s exhibition projects: “75 years of MOSKh”, “80 years of MOSKh”, “Zurab Tsereteli. 24 hours ”,“ Vivat, Maestro! ”And others, group exhibitions in the Moscow Museum of Modern Art, in the Small Manege, in the Museum-Workshop of S. T. Konenkov, in the archives of the Russian Academy of Sciences, in the literary museum“ House I. S Ostroukhova in Trubniki ", exhibitions in St. - Petersburg, Tbilisi and other cities.

For the creation of a series of images of contemporary artists and propaganda of the activities of the Russian Academy of Arts, he was awarded the Diploma of the Russian Academy of Arts, and the Gold Medal of the Russian Academy of Arts, the medal "For Services to the Academy", and other awards.