This autumn, the National Gallery presents a journey through a world of shadow and light: Monochrome: Painting in Black and White. With more than fifty painted objects created over 700 years, it is a radical new look at what happens when artists cast aside the colour spectrum and focus on the visual power of black, white, and everything in between.
Paintings and drawings by Old Masters such as Jan van Eyck, Albrecht Dürer, Rembrandt van Rijn, and Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres appear alongside works by some of the most exciting contemporary artists working today including Gerhard Richter, Chuck Close, Bridget Riley, and an immersive light installation by Olafur Eliasson.
Monochrome reveals fresh insights into the use of colour as a choice rather than a necessity. Through five themes Sacred subjects, Studying light and shade, An artistic aesthetic, Challenging other media and Abstraction, Monochrome addresses a different aspect of painting in black, white and grey, also known as grisaille.
The earliest surviving works of Western art made in grisaille were created in the Middle Ages for devotional purposes, to eliminate distractions, and focus the mind. From the 15th century onward artists made drawings in black and white to work through challenges posed by their subjects and compositions.
Increasingly, paintings in grisaille were made as independent works of art, complete unto themselves. For centuries artists have challenged themselves to mimic the appearance of stone sculpture in painting, to compete with new developments in printmaking, photography and film. Abstract and installation artists have always been drawn to black and white. When artists have ready access to every possible hue, the absence of colour can be all the more shocking or thought-provoking.
Kazimir Malevich Black Square, 1929 Oil on canvas, 80 x 80 cm © The State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow
今年秋天，國家畫廊帶來了一場通往光影世界的旅程《單色：黑白繪畫》。匯聚了五十幾件誕生於700多年前的作品，這趟旅程將以一個全新、前衛的角度看待藝術家們從拋棄色譜，到集中於黑白的視覺衝擊，以及介於兩色之間的任何可能。
早期的大師們如揚•範•艾克、丟勒、倫勃朗和安格爾的油畫及素描作品將與當下最活躍的當代藝術家的作品一同展出，其中包括格哈德•里希特、查克•克洛斯、布里奇特•賴利的作品，以及奧拉維爾•埃利亞松的沉浸式燈光裝置。
《單色》傳達了把顏色的使用作為選擇而不是必然的新見解。通過五大主題：神聖題材、光影研究、藝術審美、挑戰其他媒體和抽象，該展覽研究了黑、白和灰繪畫的另一領域，又稱灰色彩繪法。
現存最早採用灰色模擬浮雕畫法的西方藝術品誕生於中世紀，這是一種出於虔誠才創造的作品，目的為了做到驅除心中的雜念，做到心無旁騖。從15世紀起，藝術家們就通過創作黑白素描去突破畫作主題和構圖所提出的挑戰。
之後，越來越多的純灰色畫作品被作為獨立的藝術品來創作。幾個世紀以來，藝術家們在繪畫中通過模仿石雕的外觀來進行自我挑戰，同時與版畫、攝影和電影的新發展相互競爭。同樣地，抽象和裝置藝術家一直都被黑白所吸引。當藝術家們已經能隨意使用任何一種可能的色調時，色彩的消失反而會更令人震驚或發人深省。
展覽場地：National Gallery英國國家畫廊
展覽時間：30 October 2017 – 18 February 2018
更多信息：www.nationalgallery.org.uk
