Monochrome

Strange exhibition at the National Gallery looking at how artists have painted in black and white and why.

The show was an interesting idea but it didn’t always hang together that well and I must admit it’s a while since I saw it and not many of the works have stayed with me. The first section looked at the religious use of lack of colour. It was interesting to see the Memling Donne triptych being used to show the paintings representing stone carving on the back but a bit annoying that this means the rest of the wonderful work wasn’t on show during this period. I was fascinated by a huge cloth with white paint on a indigo cloth which had been used as temporary decoration for a church. I’d never seen anything like that before.

There was a nice section looking at how black and white is often imitating other art forms such as the Mantegna frieze made to look like sculpture. It also looked at how artists responsed to the rise in popularity of printing and later photography. It was nice to have not only Chardin’s “Back from the Market” along with the famous print of it and an illusionistic drawing of the print with broken glass.

The most amazing section though was the installation at the end, a light room which stripped the colour from you as you go in. At first I found it funny and clever to watch by clothes turn black and white but I then got quite perturbed by the fact that the colour drained from you skin too. I couldn’t stay in there!

Closed on 18 February 2018

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