White

A sensitive history of colors

April 19, 2018 to January 6, 2019

Ever since the beginning of modernism in the 1860s, color has been the big deal in painting, as one of the fundamental components of the grammar of art. It's hardly surprising, then, that white and black have played a special role in this history. Whether we define these two colors as the sum or absence of all the others, they have little to do with nature, and in so doing, they encourage analysis and conceptualization.

Transchronological

Room 21

Last update: Wednesday, November 6 at 12:24 PM

And yet, during this period, which corresponds to the invention and development of photography, artists were busy redefining the essence of art, starting with its fundamental components, to quote Maurice Denis' famous 1890 quote: "remember that a painting, before being a warhorse, a naked woman or some anecdote, is essentially a flat surface covered with colors in a certain assembled order."

Drawing on the museum's collections from the ^19th to the ^21st century, from Paul Delaroche to Martin Barré, from Jean Arp to Christopher Wool, this exhibition examines how artists have used this color to reflect on painting and, more broadly, on art.

In videos

Introduction

Prologue

Concept

Caption and credits
Henri-Pierre Picou, Le Styx, sketch, ca. 1849