Black and White

A work of art without color conveys clarity and directness even though that may or may not be the inherent intent of the work. The phrase “seeing something in black and white” more than implies a straightforward presentation, without superfluous details or embellishment, that may distract attention away from the essence of the content. Because of the absence of color the work that falls into this category has the quality of a drawing or schematic diagram. The main intent of a drawing or schematic diagram might be thought to be the conveyance of a concept. Drawing is often thought of as a black and white medium that provides insight into the process of how an artist develops an idea. A black and white work that is not a drawing may be a more resolved example of a concept. Many black and white works contain pictorial concepts and compositional relationships that sometimes appear to the viewer as more than the sum of their visual components. Black and white works by the absence of color appear to create a 1and 0 systematic layout almost like an algorithm, despite their appearance or intent at being spontaneous. Some of the works in this exhibition appear to have a translucence that does not rely on the intervention of color in some of the works in this exhibition eschewing color appears as a dialectic to the lush digital enhancement seen in many examples of mass media reproduction and contemporary works of art being made at present. By working in black and white the artists whose work is included in the exhibition may be using a strategy for coherence and lucidity even when their intent may be to veil or obscure a concept.