Thirty Shades of White — Curated by René-Julien Praz — Praz-Delavallade Gallery — Exhibition — Slash Paris

Past: November 28, 2015 → January 23, 2016

As Stéphane Mallarmé used to say: «Writing consists of putting black on white», and this poetic digression allows me to evoke the colour white, a regal colour that majestically takes centre stage, the chromatic synthesis of all the other colours. When considering this exhibition designed to give the artists carte blanche, I thought point blank of a titled, but I won’t say that black is white: perhaps Thirty Shades of White was a rather predictable one.

Each of the artists (some well-known, others less so) applies his/her own artistic vocabulary and colour aesthetics in a subjective or objective personal journey into the world of shades. Is what we perceive not an illusion, a resonance, an emotional light that the artist endeavours to explore? «We do not create light, we portrait it», said Cézanne. White is a demanding colour. It reflects the light that all the other filter, dispersing it by refraction so the other colours can delight us. White sheds light on art itself; Malevitch, Opalka, Lewitt, Newman, Twombly, Ryman, Reinhardt, Manzoni, Kelly and many others brilliantly made use of this colour. White symbolises the unity that precedes diversity, rites of passage, balance, grace and a moment frozen in time just before disappearance, obliteration, renunciation, abdication and bereavment.