LAUSR

none of us (whatever our profession—scholars, critics, politicians, historians) can really escape the cultural and historical context in which we live and work. Ironically, the book itself is also a victim of this fundamental truth. As anyone who specializes in Russian art knows, our knowledge about the Russian avant-garde is constantly changing: the factual framework that seemed secure a decade ago, or even yesterday, can rapidly disintegrate. This is especially true of the Black Square. In 2015, to mark the centenary of its creation, the State Tret ́iakov Gallery instituted a new scientific investigation of the original painting, using the very latest techniques. The process revealed two images beneath the present image: a Cubo-Futurist composition covered by a proto-Suprematist—but not Suprematist— painting. Previously, the craquelure (revealing color beneath) had suggested that the Black Square had been painted over an existing Suprematist composition and was not the first Suprematist painting. This has now been disproved. Indeed, Irina Vakar concluded that the painting’s long gestation indicated that it was almost certainly the first Suprematist painting. Although Kudriavtseva’s book was not able to take account of this new evidence, the event underlines the validity of her approach, and should cause us all to pause and seriously consider the factors governing our own intellectual activities.