Which End is Up

Just can't help myself. With the reds of my eyes burning bright I write this....

Suddenly, I realized that there were an awful lot of artists in the 20th Century whose Biggest contribution was painting Squares. And what Squares they were! Beautiful studies of Spirituality that returned Art to the ideas of Simplicity, Color, Paint, Space, Depth. No ornamentation. No pretense. The pictures really speak for themselves (I still don't know how to add pictures dang it all), but if you are interested in the symbolisms and philosophies of the square shape please wiki the brains out of it.

I've looked at 4 of these artists, the ones I could think of, to see if there's anything in particular that would indicate a need to reduce their expressions down to a very simple shape. And of course I was looking for Grand Squares, especially since all 4 lived through the First World War in Europe and had suffered from that experience. One common factor I found was that the progressed Sun or Venus changed Signs in their charts at the time of their new creation. So this seems to be a personal experience involving a shift in expression which completely fits for that aspect. I mean it's obviously born of the times in which non-objective art was in its infancy, but I wonder if they would have hooked into it so easily.

I found that two started painting their squares during the same years between 1912-15, one in Russia, one in Netherlands. This was just as World War I broke out. The other two started painting their squares in 1948 in the U.S. Also of interest is that 3 out of the 4 guys I looked at were Pisces Suns. On the wikipedia article for Malevich, someone wrote that curators still don't know how to hang his paintings because they don't know which end is up. Only a Pisces would leave it like that.

Here they are, Masters of the Squares:

Kazimir Malevich, Russian Suprematist
b. Feb. 23, 1878 Kiev, Russia

Sun 5 Pisces, Moon Scorpio or Sagittarius; NN 23 Aquarius

Malevich was refused from Art School multiple times. He painted Icons and developed a need to express his spirituality through art. He also sympathized with folk art. The geometric shapes were a spiritual search for pure essence. The first ones were Black and White, then White on White...

Great Chart for an Artist. Sun c. Venus RX in Pisces. This conjunction is sextile Neptune-Chiron in Taurus; opposite Uranus in Leo; square Pluto in Taurus. He may have a Grand Square between Sun-Venus-Uranus-Pluto and Moon. In 1913-15 when he painted his famous painting "Black Square" he was going through his Jupiter Return and his Prog. Venus was changing signs from Aquarius into Pisces and was conjunct natal Venus. All Four have Venus in hard aspect to Pluto, most have it also in aspect to Uranus and Neptune.

Piet Mondrian
b. Mar. 7, 1872 Amersfoort, Netherlands

Sun 18 Pisces; Moon Aquarius; NN 18 Gemini

The geometric shapes were a way of reducing the known world down to its essence. You can see the progression of how he developed this vision in his representational paintings of landscapes. Ended up painting only mostly in primary colors with Black and White. And Mondrian never reduced all the way down to one single shape.

Venus at 14 Aquarius trining NN and maybe conjunct Moon. Venus square Pluto 19 Taurus.

In 1913-15 his progressed Sun was just moving into Taurus.

In 1915 there was a conjunction of Uranus to the North Node in Aquarius, a very avante-garde aspect. This was conjunct Mondrian's n.Venus and Malevich's natal Mercury.

Josef Albers
b. Mar. 19, 1888 Boltrop, Westphalia

Sun 30 Pisces; Moon Gemini; NN 9 Leo

Venus 30 Aquarius conjunct Mercury square Neptune 28 Taurus conjunct Pluto 4 Gemini.
Two Grand Trines:
Venus Aquarius-Mars Libra-Chiron Gemini & Jupiter Sagittarius-Sun Aries-Saturn Cancer.

Started creating endless series to observe Color Relationships in 1949. Progressed Sun moving from Taurus to Aries.

Mark Rothko
b. Sept. 25, 1903 Daugavpils, Latvia

Sun 2 Libra; Moon Scorpio or Sagittarius; NN 7 Libra

Sun conjunct NN in Libra squaring Neptune.
Grand Square: Venus Rx Virgo-Jupiter Pisces-Pluto 21 Gemini-Uranus 22 Sagittarius.

Mother died in October. 1948. Started painting in signature style of rectangular blocks that Winter. Strong spiritual intent to his paintings. Made them huge in order to surround the viewer with pure experience. Built a chapel in Texas for some of them.