Page 253 - Uros Todorovic Byzantine Painting Contemporary Eyes

Chapter V
ily be related to diverse theological sources and trends, with certain emphasis on Τhe Mystical Theology of Dionysius the Pseudo-Areopagite, as well as agnostic teachings.
Due to the specific aims of this book, in this chapter we shall exclusively examine the aesthetic relationship of Malevich’s work to the principles, as well as to the distinct tran- scendental quality of Late Byzantine painting. Therefore, we shall not conduct an exhaus- tive assessment of each particular phase of Malevich’s artistic development. More par- ticularly, our aim is to address the two following questions: firstly, what kind of post-phys- ics has Malevich’s work embodied in its mature aesthetic phase, and secondly, at what level does his post-physics relate to the aesthetic principles of Late Byzantine painting.
Our hypothesis is that Malevich’s work relates to Late Byzantine painting not at the level of meaning but at the level of inter-textual references. With the term “inter-textu- ality” we refer to the dialogic potentiality which can exist within the particular elements comprising a distinct aesthetical view. This primarily means that, in the same way that tendency towards abstraction in Late Byzantine painting alludes to and communicates a transcendental meaning which exceeds the mere description of the sacred history, Ma- levich’s abstract expression alludes to something which is beyond the visuality of his compositions. Most importantly, this inter-textual quality of Malevich’s abstraction trig- gers an aesthetic “short-circuit” – so to speak, where the observer of Malevich’s work is unassumingly led to the post-physical qualities of Late Byzantine painting. We should stress that in the Byzantine (Orthodox) worldview and its painting tradition, there is no such thing as “metaphysics” but there is simply a belief in the existence of invisible di- mensions of reality. Because of this, in this chapter, in reference to certain aspects of Byzantine painting we shall be adhering to the term “post-physical,” as opposed to “met- aphysical” – which has a different meaning in the contemporary philosophical discourse. This adjustment of terminology is also aimed at clarifying the relationship between Ma- levich’s abstraction and Late Byzantine painting. In light of this, the ultimate aim of our present enquiry into Late Byzantine aspects of Malevich’s art is to provide an additional practical insight into the previously underexplored significance of the aesthetics of Late Byzantine painting for the emergence of Modernism.
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