Russian Suprematist artist Kazimir Malevich (1879-1935) is currently enjoying a major retrospective at the Tate, devoted to “the fierce beauty” of his non-objective paintings, like Red Square (Painterly Realism of a Peasant Woman in Two Dimensions), 1915, nothing other than an in-fact red square.

‘Charles,’ said Cordelia, ‘Modern Art is all bosh, isn’t it?’

“‘Great bosh.’

“‘Oh, I’m so glad. I had an argument with one of our nuns and she said we shouldn’t try and criticize what we didn’t understand. Now I shall tell her I have had it straight from a real artist, and snubs to her.'”

—Brideshead Revisited, Bk.II, ch.1

But Malevich was capable of more than great bosh. Just a few years earlier, needing money, the artist accepted a commission from Brocard & Co, a perfumier, to produce the above 8″ tall bottle.