Monochrome
Students of Modern & Contemporary Art Practices (Art 179E HM, Spring 2019)
February 28, 2019, 4:15-5:30 p.m.
Hixon Court, Harvey Mudd College
“Monochrome,” a pop-up exhibition
Ninety-nine students of Modern & Contemporary Art Practices (Art 179E HM, Spring 2019) each display a monochrome of their own.
“Monochrome means one color. The monochrome is often seen as the ultimate manifestation of abstraction in the history of modern art. For some, it signals the end of painting, as it would appear to reject representation of any kind. Without image, and inherently pure, the monochrome seems to resist all meaning, coming to symbolize for many all that is elitist and difficult about modern and contemporary art.”1
Artists have used painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, film, video, installation, performance, clothing, sound (monotone), and more to explore the idea of the monochrome. Some artists have sought the “spiritual experience of emptying” and “the neutrality and serenity that can be found in the purely abstract.” Others use it as a reduction of a medium to “its most basic elements to emphasize the concrete and material [or immaterial] nature” of a work.2
Modern & Contemporary Art Practices is taught by Professor Ken Fandell.
1. https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-liverpool/exhibition/dla-piper-series-twentieth-century/twentieth-century-11-3
2. https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/m/monochrome