The creative association was formed on March 16, 1987 in Vitebsk as an opposition to official art. Participants: Alexander Dosuzhev, Nikolai Dundin, Alexander Maley, Viktor Mikhailovsky, Tatyana Rudenko, Yuri Rudenko, Alexander Slepov, Valery Schastny, Valery Chukin, Viktor Shilko.

It included artists, most of them not from among the members of the Union of Artists (only Alexander Maley, Viktor Shilko, Alexander Slepov were members of the Union of Artists). Organizer and leader of the association Alexander Maley.

The main objective of the association was to oppose official art. So, at the time of the creation of the “Square” only Alexander Malei, Viktor Shilko and Alexander Slepov were members of the Union of Artists of the BSSR. The group's aesthetic reference was the Russian avant-garde, postmodernism and the Vitebsk school of the 1920s. The method of the group's work - collective creativity - was realized in the form of actions and actions-exhibitions, as well as educational activities.

The task of the group was to affirm the principles of free and independent creativity with an aesthetic orientation to the ideas of the historical avant-garde, postmodernism and the Vitebsk school of the 1920s. The form and method of work of the "Square" is collective creativity, which makes it similar to the Vitebsk association of the beginning of the last century - "UNOVIS". Easel art in the association developed individually and represented different types of art: abstract and figurative painting, sculpture, graphics and arts and crafts.

Collectively, Kvadrat created projects, actions, performances and installations, and also held information campaigns about Marc Chagall, Kazimir Malevich and other representatives of UNOVIS.

"Kvadrat" (like some other similar Soviet art groups in the USSR) was created as a successor to the avant-garde searches of the 1920s, since until the 1980s the tradition was broken and the artists tried to fill the organized void. The avant-garde ended in the late 20s, and in the 80s. the artists tried to fill the resulting pause.

"Kvadrat" was exhibited in the following cities: Vitebsk, Minsk, Moscow, Leningrad, Narva. Abroad: Teruel (Spain), Warsaw, Gdansk, Zielona Gora (Poland).

The works of the participants of TO "Kvadrat" are in the Museum of Modern Art of Seoul, Narva (Estonia), the National Art Museum of the Republic of Belarus, as well as in private collections in France, USA, Germany, Spain, Canada, Finland, Russia and Belarus.

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Selected dates:

March 16, 1987

The team was formed in Vitebsk. The first exhibition was held in the Hall of the Union of Artists of the BSSR in Vitebsk. Also participation of the team in an exhibition in Kaunas at the Architect's House.

1988

Participation in the conceptual art workshop in Narva (Estonia).

September 1988

Participation in an experimental exhibition of Leningrad artists in the Youth Palace "Youth" in Leningrad.

November 1988

Project "Experiment" (110 years since the birth of Kazimir Malevich) with the participation of artists from Minsk and Leningrad in the Hall of the Union of Artists of the BSSR in Vitebsk.

February 1989

The project "Experiment" (110 years since the birth of Kazimir Malevich) was held in the Minsk Palace of Arts.

July 1989

Exhibition-action "Nature and Culture" in the Hall of the city center of culture and leisure in Vitebsk.

October 1989

Participation in the first republican exhibition of non-traditional art "Panorama" in Minsk.

June 1990

Personal exhibition of the team at the Museum of Modern Art in Zielona Góra (Poland).

July 1990

Exhibition-action "UNOVIS-70", dedicated to the 70th anniversary of UNOVIS in Vitebsk (Pravda street, 5).

January 1991

Collective installations and photo-action for the exhibition "Return of the Master", dedicated to Marc Chagall (Vitebsk).

May 1991

Panorama of Belarusian contemporary art "Bel-Art" in the Norblin Hall of Contemporary Art in Warsaw.

June 1991

Exhibition of works "Square" in the Bishopric of Aragon in Teruel (Spain).

July 1991

Exhibition of works by artists "Square" in the Central House of Artists on Krymsky Val in Moscow.

1992

Project "Malevich's Wall".

1992

Project "Art and Nature".

March 16, 1994

"Square" self-dissolved.

Autumn 1994

Artists "Kvadrat" took part in the I International Plein Air "Malevich. UNOVIS. Modernity".

2015

A historical and biographical book by Alexander Maley "Vitebsk "Square": an artistic study of the nonconformist movement of artists in Vitebsk and Minsk (1987-2000)" (Minsk: Ekonompress, 332 pp.) has been published.