Illustration titled “Effectmalerei” (Effect Painting), possibly by Friedrich Weigand, for an 1867 issue of the Munich weekly Fliegende Blätter. Translated, the caption reads: “‘Audience: “What is that fellow doing with that pike?’ Halberdier: ‘Back there! You don’t come close to such a picture, it’s painted with effect; all back, even further back, the further the better!’”.

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.