Abstract art unlocks the truth about the universe

Great abstract painters like Pollock and Monet lose themselves in colour, sensation and memory to show that reality is subjective

Abstract art is a kind of miracle. How can a painting that is just a white surface, or a swirl of colour, mean something? But it can and it does, and the unlikely greatness of abstraction is one of the most moving achievements of modern times.

The Whitechapel Gallery’s new-year exhibition Adventures of the Black Square explores the story of abstraction since Kazimir Malevich exhibited his Black Square in 1915. But I’ve got to be honest: it wasn’t the revolutionary European abstract painters of the early 20th century who made me fall in love with this kind of art.

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