MODERNISM

Black Square (1915) - a black square on a white background - by the Russian Kasimir Malevich (1879-1935,) and Suprematist Composition: White on White (1918) - an off-white square on an off-white ground by the same artist - took Western art to a new level of abstraction. Such abstraction was one of the characteristics of many modernist works over the next 25 years. It represented the rejection of realism, which was associated with the past, in favour of progress and modernity, as well as the urge to experiment with form, materials and techniques. Nevertheless, many modernists, such as Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) and Henry Moore (1898-1986), moved between abstraction and figuration. Moore’s drawings of Londoners sheltering from the Blitz in the Underground are some of his most moving works.