Black square on white page

The panel is indeed built to lead the hero to this inevitable moment.

A "brilliant" cliffhanger because it is so successful. Like a cinematic fade-out, it leaves the reader in suspense, between tension and uncertainty. It triggers an irrepressible urge to turn to the next page to find out what happened to the young reporter. Did he get away from his pursuers or did he fall into their net? A dark mystery...

However, from the middle of the page, Hergé prepares them psychologically by using an effective and very contrasting light and shade, which Caravaggio himself might have had the idea for. "Let's turn off the lamp!" exclaims Tintin to his faithful companion.

No sooner said than done! And the room instantly falls into a dramatic darkness...

Well, almost! Because the battle that takes place in the shadows causes sparks to fly. The blows and other "Bang", “To me" and "Boom" that emanate from it become almost glimmers of hope. Then, the confrontation diminishes in intensity, leading to the gradual disappearance of light sources, until total darkness and silence finally reigns.

The action is at its height and yet there is no more movement.

Nothing is happening.

This pictorial negation echoes the work of Kasimir Malevich, but even more so, his famous Black Square on a White Background. With this revolutionary and masterful work - which was a milestone in the history of painting and aesthetic theories - the artist invented, in 1915, the "zero degree of form", that is, a new artistic language freed from any objective representation of the world.

Guided by a quest for the absolute, he rejected the very foundations of classical aesthetics in order to preserve only simple geometric forms, painted in flat, pure colours. This approach of extreme simplification enabled him to create a new form of art, abstract, empty of meaning and therefore devoid of any significance.

Of Polish origin, Kasimir Malevich (1879-1935), was born in Kiev, Ukraine. This was a factor that had a lasting influence on his personality and his theoretical and pictorial thoughts. Far removed from the aesthetic canons known until then, he strove throughout his career to offer a radical - not to say brutal - vision of art. Of course he expressed his protest against Stalinist tyranny through his painting.

Like Malevich, other emblematic figures born in the Ukrainian capital have left a lasting mark on the world through their actions and commitments. Among them: