Nadar, “La Vie Publique et Privée de Mossieu Réac” (The Public and Private Life of Mister Réac), part of the artist’s ten-part series for La Révue comique (Paris, 1848). Here the chaotic and confused state of the incompetent opportunist hero’s affairs is represented as a scribbled haze of blackness.
Featured on PDR in the essay Precedents of the Unprecedented: Black Squares Before Malevich
Described by Kasimir Malevich as the “first step of pure creation in art”, his *Black Square* of 1915 has been cast as a total break from all that came before it. Yet searching across more than five hundred years of images related to mourning, humour, politics, and philosophy, Andrew Spira uncovers a slew of unlikely foreshadows to Malevich's radical abstraction.
Also appearing in the essay…
The Public and Private Life of Mr. Réac
Date
1848
From
La Révue comique
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