"Battle of the Negroes in dark cave late at night" - a painting by Alphonse Allais, which is absolutely similar to Malevich's "Black Square" and was written 30 years before him. However, according to Russian experts, the picture is comic and cannot be compared with Malevich's masterpiece, since he is the manifesto of Suprematism. What this picture definitely cannot compare with the "Black Square" is the price.
Alphonse Alle
An eccentric writer and journalist, Alphonse Allais was born in Honfleur in 1854. He is considered the founder of conceptualism and minimalism in almost all major areas of art: in music, painting and even literature. Most of all, he became famous for his absurdist antics and black humor.
The painting "Battles of Negroes in a dark cave in the dead of night"
His play Magnum's Revenge was 50 years ahead of the introduction of minimalism in the theatre. And in 1882-1884 he began to paint pictures that belong to the so-called monochrome painting. Such paintings were rectangles of white, green, red and had names like "The first communion of pale girls in the snowy season."
However, the first picture in the form of a black quadrangle does not belong to him, but to his close friend Billot. Billo became the author of the painting "Battle of the Negroes in the Dungeon", which he painted in 1882. The painting marked the beginning of a series of humorous monochrome canvases, which in subsequent years included paintings by Allais and Billot, and, according to some experts, the same Black Square.
John Cage's minimalist work "4"33", which is four and a half minutes of silence, is also not the first of its kind. Here the primacy belongs to Alla and his "Funeral March to the Death of the Great Deaf".
Alle was a comedian not by position, but by life and got a lot of pleasure from it. Alla's whole life was accompanied by a joke, and it ended with a joke. IN last night before his death, the doctor ordered him to stay in bed for another six months, otherwise Alphonse would not have lived for a long time, but he did not follow the doctor's recommendations.
He invited his friends to a restaurant and spent the last evening there. Alphonse argued that death is better than six months in bed. He told a friend who accompanied him that he would not live to see tomorrow and that it would be a kind of joke that he would no longer laugh at. He actually died the next day.
Battle of blacks in a deep cave
Since of the predecessors of Malevich's painting, this painting has most famous, it is she who is most often compared with the "Square". Some experts tend to consider "Black Square" plagiarism. Some are a continuation of a series of jokes, but the bulk of domestic experts, including Malevich's nephew, categorically insist that Alla's painting has nothing to do with Malevich at all. But is it really so?
A recent discovery showed that under the main layer of the first "Black Square" by Malevich there are also two additional ones, different from the square, colored, but also abstract. In addition, the inscription “Negro battle in a dark cave” was found on the painting, which, apparently, refers the masterpiece to a series of comic paintings. But the date of the inscription is not indicated, although it still looks more like it was made by the author, just, perhaps, a little later than the picture was painted. Most contemporaries immediately began to resent. In their opinion, such a circumstance can undeservedly reduce the price of the picture.
In addition, before Malevich, as it turns out, there were not only these two paintings with black figures in the form of a rectangle, but also Robert Fludd’s painting “The Great Darkness”, dating from the 17th century, and “Twilight Russia” by Gustave Doré. Sweeping away their "masterpiece", it is stated that Malevich's square is unique precisely because of the effect it produced, and not because of its originality or artistic features. There is another opinion that explains such a high popularity of the square by elementary promotion.
The painting occupies its own niche in world art. And although she does not have such high value, as a masterpiece of Malevich, she has the right to a fair assessment. Alphonse Allais certainly cannot be blamed for plagiarism.
Alphonse Allais was born on October 20, 1854Alphonse Allais), french journalist and an editor, an eccentric writer, a non-serious artist and a jovial person.
He did not tolerate order in anything and directly stated: "Do not even hope, I am dishonorable." He wrote most often in the cafe "Austen Fox", in fits and starts, almost did not work on books, and it looked something like this:
"Don't be silly... so I can sit on my ass and pore over a book? - that's
impossibly funny! No, I'd rather tear it off anyway!"
In addition to studying literature "under a table in a cafe," Alle had many more "important" duties in his life. In particular, he was a member of the board of the "Honorary Hydropaths Club", which brought together witty artists, poets and musicians. who gathered in the cheerful cellar "Hydropat".
Later, the circle moved to the Black Cat cabaret, whose owner owns the aphorism "God created the world. Napoleon is the Order of the Honorary Pegion, and I am Montmartre."
It was there, during the exhibitions of "Untethered Art", that Allais exhibited his works for the first time.
famous monochrome paintings, anticipating Malevich's "Black Square" by several decades.
The first in a series of his artistic discoveries was completely black canvas"Battle of the Negroes in
cave in the dead of night". Not stopping at the success achieved, Alle presented to the public
virgin White list paper titled "The first communion of insensible girls in the snow." This was followed by a red "landscape" "Harvesting tomatoes on the shores of the Red Sea
apoplectic cardinals" and, in the end, in 1897 - a book of 7 paintings "Album Primo-
Avrilesque(April Fools album).
He even managed to die funny. The day before, the doctor strictly warned Alla, suffering from embolism, not to get up in bed. Otherwise, death. The reaction was expected:
"funny people those doctors! They seriously think that death is worse than six months in
bed!" As soon as the doctor hid behind the door, Alle went to a restaurant with friends: "Keep in
mind, tomorrow I'll be already a corpse! You will find it witty, but I will no longer laugh with you. Now you'll be left laughing - without me. So. tomorrow I'll be dead!"
In full accordance with his last joke, he died the next day, October 28, 1905.
In 1934, in France, the Association of Friends of Alphonse Allais was created and is still actively operating, which organizes original and unusual events in memory of the great joker.
Alphonse Alle "Things":
Such moments often happen in life. when the absence of cannibals is felt extremely painful.
The hungry belly has no ears, but it has a wonderful sense of smell.
To drive away is quite a bit to die. But to die is a very strong departure!
Never put off until tomorrow what you can do the day after tomorrow.
Even poverty is easier to bear with money, isn't it?
As the widow of a man who died after a consultation of three the best doctors Paris:
- But what could he do alone, sick, against three - healthy?
The end of the month is the hardest to get through, especially the last thirty days.
Alphonse Alle (French Alphonse Allais, 10/20/1854, Honfleur - 10/28/1905, Paris) - French journalist, writer and eccentric humorist, known for his sharp language and absurdist antics, a quarter of a century anticipating the famous outrageous exhibitions of Dadaists and Surrealists of the 1910s and 1920s -s.
Alphonse Allais is also known as the "secret" founder or forerunner of conceptualism and minimalism.
Alphonse Allais - one of the founders of the group "Awkward Arts" (1882-1893), and also the first in the world abstract artist, - much earlier than Malevich, - who worked in the "monochrome" style.
A quarter of a century before Kazimir Malevich, Alphonse Allais was the author of a work similar to the famous Black Square.
It happened in 1883.
As a real eccentric person, Alphonse Allais came up with the original name for his painting.
"Black Square" was called"Battle of the Negroes in the cave in the dead of night".
The painting was exhibited for the first time at the Untied Art exhibition at the Vivienne Gallery.
Not stopping at the success achieved, then Alle put up a virgin white sheet of Bristol paper called "The first communion of girls suffering from chlorosis in the snowy season"(also 1893).
Six months later, the next picture of Alphonse Allais was perceived as a kind of "coloristic explosion".
Rectangular Landscape "Harvesting tomatoes on the shores of the Red Sea by apoplectic cardinals" was a bright red one-color picture without the slightest sign of the image (1894).
Then Alphonse Allais expanded his collection with Gray, Blue, Green, Yellow rectangles and published a book with these works.
"Round dance of drunks in the fog"
"The numbness of recruits seeing blue for the first time mediterranean sea"
"Pimps in their prime drinking absinthe on their stomachs in the grass!"
"Working with ocher icteric cuckold husbands"
He managed to leave his mark not only in painting, but also in literature and music. Sixty years before the play "4'33" by John Cage and almost half a century before the silence of Erwin Schulhoff, in 1897 he composed and "performed ""Funeral March for the Burial of the Great Deaf", which, however, did not contain a single note. Only silence, as a sign of respect for death and understanding of the important principle that great sorrows are dumb. They do not tolerate any fuss or sounds. In the finished version, this work looked like this:
The literary work of Alphonse Allais consists of aphorisms, stories and fairy tales.
Having a "heavy duty" to write a ridiculous column in magazines and newspapers, he involuntarily had to "laugh for money" almost every other day. Here are just some phrases from his work, by which one can judge the style of Alphonse Allais as an author:
"Never put off until tomorrow what you can do the day after tomorrow."
"What is a lazy person: this is a person who does not even pretend to work."
"To drive away is to die quite a bit. But to die is to drive away very much!"
"With money, even poverty is easier to bear, isn't it?"
"True pinnacle portrait art: when you can easily sit down and shave in front of your own image.
"The hungry belly has no ears, but it has a wonderful scent."
"The hardest thing to get through is the end of the month, especially the last thirty days."
"While we figure out how best to kill time, time is methodically killing us."
Alphonse Allais died in one of the rooms of the Britannia Hotel. The day before, the doctor had strictly ordered him not to get up in bed for six months, only then recovery seemed possible. Otherwise, death. “Funny people, these doctors! They seriously think that death is worse than six months in bed!” As soon as the doctor disappeared behind the door, Alphonse Allais quickly got ready and spent the evening in a restaurant, and to a friend who accompanied him back to the hotel, he told his last joke:
"Mind you, tomorrow I'll be dead! You'll find it witty, but I won't be laughing with you anymore. Now you'll be laughing - without me. So, tomorrow I'll be dead!" In full accordance with its latest funny joke, he died the next day, October 28, 1905.
Alphonse Allais is dead, but his work lives on.
Firstly, after the Second World War in France, the political Association of Absolute Apologists of Alphonse Allais (abbreviated "A.A.A.A.A.") was organized and is still actively operating. This close-knit group of fanatical people is a public body in which humor is valued above all other pleasures of life Alphonse.
Secondly, there is the "Alphonse Allais Smallest Museum" on the Upper Street of Honfleur in the premises of Alphonse Allais's father's pharmacy. There you can see, for example, "black ear plugs for widows", "Voltaire's skull as a child", "a cup for a left-hander", "a real piece of a fake cross of Christ." Alle absolutely could not stand any violence. He figured out how to get rid of the flies that had polluted the ceiling of the pharmacy without killing them: he scattered balls of a mixture of honey and bismuth around the pharmacy, which, in principle, were supposed to cause constipation in the damned insects. For postal workers who seal envelopes all day, he created various types of glue - "laxative", "expectorant", etc., there is also an obscene filter designed to clean up the style, and muzzles for snails to keep them from salivating for salad, and many other essentials.
Alphonse Allais (fr. Alphonse Allais)
Alphonse Allais was not only an eccentric writer, an eccentric artist and an eccentric person, but also an "eccentric philosopher".
His creativity and way of behaving possessed the property of totality. He was eccentric not only in his stories, aphorisms, fairy tales, poems or paintings, but also in the most ordinary Everyday life because "there was no center for him in anything."
By the way, even his death was eccentric.
In the tone of school sneak:
- And Malevich draws from Alla ...
- Picturesque masterpieces by Alphonse ALLET -
The French journalist and humorist Alphonse Allais was one of the founders of the Absurd Arts group (1882-1893). He is also known as the "secret" founder or forerunner of conceptualism and minimalism, and also as the world's first abstract artist, who worked in the "monochrome" style much earlier than Malevich.
The first in a series of artistic discoveries by Alphonse Allais was a completely black and almost square canvas called "Battle of Negroes in a Cave in the Dead of Night". 
Not stopping at the success achieved, Alle put up a virgin Blank sheet Bristol paper - "The first communion of insensible girls in the snow" 
And then Alphonse suffered ... 
P.S. In fairness, I want to note that the idea of the "black square/rectangle" did not even belong to Alla, who was inspired by Paul Bilhodo's painting "Night Fight of Negroes in the Basement", 1882 (the painting was rectangular and exhibited vertically).
Apparently, Alphonse Alla liked Paul Bilhodo's idea about Negroes so much that he not only supported it, but also developed it.
But Malevich was engaged exclusively in plagiarism (IMHO). By the way, Malevich drew 4 AUTHOR'S(!) copies of his square. )
- History of "Black Squares" -
More V early XVII century English philosopher, alchemist and occultist Robert Fludd illustrated his treatise on the origin and development of the universe with six engravings. The first of these was called great darkness". It was probably the only square before Malevich that carried a philosophical meaning. 
*****
Two hundred years later Bertal(real name D'Arnoux Charles Albert), known as a cartoonist, portraitist, author of illustrations for the books of Andersen, Dumas, Dickens, Perrault, again turned to this topic. In 1843. Bertal created the work " View of La Hogue (night effect), Jean-Louis Petit”, representing a black rectangle in a horizontal position, covered with obscure characters (this is what a modern night shot from space might look like). What did the author want to say? Most likely it was just a joke. 
*****
The satirical book "The Picturesque History of Holy Rus'" also begins with the "black square". Gustave Dore published in 1854. However, for the 22-year-old artist, who had been publishing his cartoons and caricatures in popular Parisian magazines since the age of fifteen, the shaded square was not a symbol of the unknowability of the world around him, but only reflected his idea of the origin of Russia. The caption for this illustration reads: Origin Russian history lost in the darkness of centuries». 
*****
In October 1882 a group of representatives of the Parisian bohemia "Salon of the inconsistent", who worked under the slogan "Art inconsistently", opens an exhibition of works that can be characterized as absurd and caricatured. The most defiant among the paintings was a one-color, absolutely black canvas written by the poet Paul Bilhod with a politically incorrect title Night fight of blacks in the basement". 
*****
Next comes the picture Alphonse Alle, "The battle of the blacks in the cave in the dead of night"(1893
), and in 1915 Malevich appeared with his "Black Suprematist Square", under which such a "serious theoretical base" was summed up, from which I personally felt sick!
The result of any drawing is a picture. This statement would be true if Kazimir Malevich did not prove the opposite. In 1915, he painted "Black Square on a White Background" and made a shocking confession: "This is not painting, this is something else." Malevich reduced all forms and all painting to absolute zero.
But let's go back in time a little.
Back in 1882, young French writer and publisher Jules Levy founded the "Salon of the Inconsistent" group, which consisted of artists, writers, poets and other representatives of the Parisian bohemia of the late 19th century. This association did not pursue any political goals. The band's slogan was "Art is inconsistent." They mocked official values through satire, humor, and sometimes rude jokes. The paintings that were shown at the exhibitions of the Salon were not at all "paintings" in the traditional sense. These were funny cartoons, absurd nightmares, drawings, as if drawn by children. On October 1, 1882, the group opens an exhibition in Paris with the quaint title "Untethered Art".
The exhibition presented the works of six authors who can be considered the forerunners of surrealism, which declared itself 40 years later. The most provocative among the paintings was a one-color, completely black image, painted by the poet Paul Bilhaud (Paul Bilhaud), and it was called
Night fight of blacks in a cave(Negroes Fighting in a Cellar at Night). 
Just a funny picture. And the joke is not even in the picture, but in its title. Indeed, when blacks fight in a cave at night, nothing is visible and everything is black!
Bilford's humorous idea was developed by the artist Alphonse Alle. At the Incoherent shows in 1883, he exhibits a painting
Anemia girls walking to first communion in a snow storm(Pale Young Girls Going to their First Communion in the Snow) , which is a white rectangle. 
At the 1884 exhibition, he shows another monochrome drawing - a red rectangle
Apoplectic cardinals picking tomatoes on the shores of the Red Sea(Apoplectic Cardinals Harvesting Tomatoes by the Shores of the Red Sea). 
Then followed
Pimps in their prime, on their bellies in the grass, drinking absinthe
The numbness of young soldiers seeing the blue of the Mediterranean for the first time
Dealing with ocher icteric cuckold husbands
Round dance of drunks in the fog
In the monochrome works of French jokers, the concept of absence was belittled by a humorous title. In the monochrome works of Kazimir Malevich, the same concept was reinforced by a meaningless title. After all, "Black Square" is not a name, it's just a statement.
The most important thing is that the inconsistent Parisian humorists of the late 19th century did not tell the world anything about sacred sense their works. Maybe because it wasn't there. Malevich was much more serious. He tirelessly sculpted the reputation of his masterpiece, taking advantage of all possible ways. As a result, the names of "inconsistent" today are known only to specialists, and the name of Malevich is known to the whole world.
Alphonse Allais was born on October 20, 1854 in Honfleur (Department of Calvados). Having quickly completed his studies and received a bachelor's degree by the age of seventeen, Alphonse Allais (as an assistant or trainee) entered his father's pharmacy. great pride outlined for him a career as a great chemist or pharmacist. Alphonse Allais brilliantly justified the hopes of his pharmacy father. He became more than a chemist and deeper than a pharmacist. As a debut, Alphonse conducted several daring experiments on the effects on patients of a high-quality placebo of his original formulation, synthesized original counterfeit drugs, and also made several unusually interesting diagnoses “with his own hand”. He will be happy to tell about his first small pharmacy triumphs a little later, in his fairy tale: “The Heights of Darwinism”.
Lady: - I don’t know what’s wrong with me, first the food goes up, and then it goes down ...
Alphonse: - I'm sorry, madam, did you accidentally swallow the elevator?
His father sent him to an internship in the pharmacy of one of his close friends. On closer examination, a few years later this pharmacy turned out to be a privileged Masonic cabaret „ Black cat”, where Alphonse Allais continued to make his recipes and heal the sick with great success. He was engaged in this respected business almost to the end of his life. His friendship with Charles Cros ( famous inventor phonograph) inspired him to publish his most serious research on color photography, as well as a lengthy work on the synthesis of rubber (and the stretching of rubber). In addition, he received a patent for his own recipe for making freeze-dried coffee.
The first careless story of Alphonse marked the beginning of his 25-year writing life. He did not tolerate order in anything and directly stated: “Don’t even hope, I am dishonorable.” He wrote in a cafe, in fits and starts, he hardly worked on books, and it looked something like this: “Don’t talk nonsense ... so that I sit, not tearing my ass off, and poring over a book? - it's impossibly funny! No, I’d rather tear it off!“
Basically it literary creativity consists of stories and fairy tales, which he wrote an average of two or three pieces a week.
Separate literary chapter is the poetry of Alphonse Allais. Most of all of his experiences he valued his one-line (or two-line) poems in a well-known form of pantorhyme ("holorhyme"), composed of "homophones" - that is, pure game monosyllabic words and dissimilar sounds. Each individual word in these verses was repeated in the form of another word of similar sounding in the next line, which is why the rhyme was not at the end of the line, as usual, but the whole line was one continuous rhyme. Practically impossible to translate into another language, this punning poetry after twenty or thirty years was continued in the delusional verses of the Dadaists, the automatic writing of the Surrealists and the "zaumi" of the Oberiuts. The most distant idea of Alla's experiments can be given by Kharms's unusually laconic poem: "For the ladies of the backs of the backs." Here is one example of Alphonse Alle's verbal balancing act:
"Par les bois du djinn où s'entasse de l'effroi,
Parle et bois du gin ou cent tasses de lait froid.
and a rough translation of "Ah, I'm stuffy in here, I'm hot in here, can I finally open the brackets."
Peru Alphonse Alla owns a lot of sharp and juicy aphorisms, very famous -
* We need to be more tolerant of man, nevertheless, let's not forget about the primitive era in which he was created
* As the widow of a man who died after a consultation said top three doctors of Paris: “But what could he do alone, sick, against three - healthy?
* Never put off until tomorrow what you can do the day after tomorrow
* With money, even poverty is easier to bear, isn't it?
* What is a lazy person: this is a person who does not even pretend to work
* The hardest thing to survive is the end of the month, especially the last thirty days
* While we are thinking about how best to kill time, time is methodically killing us
* The true pinnacle of portrait art: when you can easily sit down and shave in front of your own image
* The hungry belly has no ears, but it has a wonderful scent.
Alphonse Allais also unexpectedly anticipated in almost seventy years the well-known minimalist piece of music"4'33"" by John Cage, which is four and a half "minutes of silence" - Alle's work was called even more conceptually "Funeral March for the Deaf Dead" (Marche Funèbre composée pour les Funérailles d "un grand homme sourd) without a single note , Certainly.
He also passed away in a very peculiar way. The day before, the doctor strictly ordered him not to get up in bed for six months, otherwise - death. “Funny people, these doctors! They seriously think that death is worse than six months in bed!” As soon as the doctor disappeared behind the door, Alphonse Allais quickly got ready and spent the evening in a restaurant, and to a friend who accompanied him back to the hotel, he told his last anecdote: “Keep in mind, tomorrow I will already be a corpse! You will find it witty, but I will no longer laugh with you. Now you will be left laughing - without me! So it happened, unfortunately.
After the Second World War, the Alphonse Allais Association of Absolute Apologists (abbreviated as A.A.A.A.A.) was organized in France and is still actively operating. This close-knit group of fanatical people is a public body and even has its own legal address, bank account and headquarters in the Alphonse Allais Museum" on the Upper Street (slightly lower than Eric Satie was born) of the city of Honfleur (Calvados, Normandy, Pharmacy).
Every Saturday in the late afternoon, the Alphonse Museum is open for free visits to all comers. At the service of visitors are laboratory experiments "a la Alle", chemical tastings "a la Alle", diagnoses "a la Alle", inexpensive (but very effective) stomach pills "pur Alle" and even a direct conversation on the old telephone "Hello, Alle" . All these services can be obtained in just half an hour in the gloomy backstage of the Honfleur pharmacy, where Alphonse Allais was born.
