Color is central to art and making, not only as an element, but also as an idea. Throughout the years, artists have affirmed color as pure sensation, embraced it as a tool and even denounced it as decorative and decadent. Those who loathe color have had as much to say about it as those who love it. Color is “diverse and divergent; fluid, elliptical and contradictory; often obscure, esoteric or strange; sometimes funny, and altogether fascinating.”1 .
Umberto Eco argues that the puzzle of color is a cultural one, for as we filter our sensations and perceptions through linguistics they become tainted by the cultural information that dictates the ways in which we interact with the world.2 In this sense, the experience of and interaction with color is conditioned by the culture and history that surrounds it. Thus, Jean Baudrillard’s argument that colors derive their significance from outside themselves and are simply metaphors for fixed cultural meanings is proven correct as the histories of both aesthetic and racial hierarchies come together to create a system that places certain colors, i.e. white or whiteness, above “other” colors whose meaning becomes attached to specific nations, cultures and races as identifiers. 3
Evidence of the prejudice to which color has been subjected in the West can be found as far back as Aristotle, who established the superiority of white by advocating for its objectivity and connection to the mind as opposed to the senses and the body.
The white marble statues and temples of Greco-Roman times later influenced the production of artistic capital and an admiration of their beauty and chromatic lack became a quality that was sought out by artists in an effort to emulate the ‘perfection’ achieved. This ideal however, emerged from ruins that had long been stripped of the color that decorated them and marble statues that were copies of Greek originals cast in bronze. During the Renaissance artists looked to the Greeks and Romans for inspiration, and in an attempt to revive Classicism touted the importance of unity, order, form, and off-course whiteness. In the early 19th century, Neoclassicism once more resurrected the same ideas; forming part of a cycle that kept reviving the past and with it the perceived superiority of whiteness. This art historical narrative, however, is in no way solely accountable for the ways in which we group, categorize, and give meaning to color.
Primitivism, like Colonialism, exploited Non-Western cultures in its search for new inspiration. Although borrowing from Non-Western cultures, Western thought still considered the color and identity of the art and people of these cultures primitive, savage, sensual and all around “other” to the rationality of the Western mindset.
In the late 20th century, as art began to take on new forms and explore softness, industrial color and a removal from the flat pictorial surface, art critics and proponents of Formalism lashed out at any type of artistic production that wasn’t formally rational. As this type of criticism was codified into artistic practice all of the “others”: color, the primitive, the decorative, the female, the soft, became one large conflation of unwanted and unapproved subjects or forms within art. Color and irrationality became tied to one another, just as the decorative, female and primitive were tied to irrationality. The “other” was seen as a corrupting influence that had to be controlled by the superior rationality of the white, Western, and male.
“Color lets us look at some of the ways we grade, order and group our experiences […] at some of our unstated habits of thought, some of our preferences and some of our cultural prejudices.”5 In contemporary art, some makers continue to ascribe to the historically codified notions of the ways in which color has been defined and deployed theoretically and functionally. Whilst other artists actively seek to break the mould, and use of white or “other” colors purposefully to analyze or criticize the cultural structures that have influenced our understanding and use of color.
“Color lets us look at some of the ways we grade, order and group our experiences […] at some of our unstated habits of thought, some of our preferences and some of our cultural prejudices.”5 In contemporary art, some makers continue to ascribe to the historically codified notions of the ways in which color has been defined and deployed theoretically and functionally. Whilst other artists actively seek to break the mould, and use of white or “other” colors purposefully to analyze or criticize the cultural structures that have influenced our understanding and use of color.
The perceived neutrality of white, or white as an aesthetic ideal, is reflected in Fernanda Gomes’ Sem titulo [Untitled]. Gomes turns the leftover and lost, the disregarded or discarded mundane objects of daily life into fragile constructions that trace everyday actions. Painted white, and only ever white, she elevates the status of what she calls ‘things’ through the use of a color she interprets as the most complete color; full and receptive. Robert Ryman’s Course forms part of a life-long exploration into the qualities and possibilities embedded in the use of white. His stringent approach eliminated imagery, color and even emotive brushwork in an effort to reflect his conviction that every visible detail of a work contributed to the viewer’s experience of it, including and importantly the white wall supporting it. Ryman endeavoured to create enlightenment and a reverent experience of painting through “[…] whiteness [that] refiningly enhances beauty, as if imparting some special virtue of its own.”6 Whites that spread outward and become part of their surroundings.
“Color threatens—or promises—to undo all the hard-won achievements of ‘culture’. It threatens—or promises—chaos and irregularity. Color threatens disorder—but also promises liberty.”8 Though color has been discriminated against in a variety of forms—technical, moral, racial, sexual and even cultural; it also serves as a vehicle for subversive exuberance, allowing for radical statements that challenge race, class and taste. It is precisely through color that Western art and making escape the regimes and hierarchies established by Academic art.
Text by Adriana Kuri Alamillo, Curatorial Assitant.