Robert Longo, Untitled (Skull Island). Signed and dated 'Longo 2005' (lower right). Graphite and charcoal on paper. 66 1/8 x 95 1/8in. (168 x 241.5cm.). Executed in 2005. viaKarl Lagerfeld said it went with everything; Johnny Cash said he never took it off. Roger Deakins mastered lighting with it, and Monet so knew its elemental nature that he hardly used it in his paintings, on principle.Black is—and isn't—a color, but from Suprematist painting through criticalmodernworksofart, to the near-impossible (but highly improbable) advancements being made with it today, it's the non-substance that still refuses to give up its limits. On this Black Friday, invest last night's thanks in a look at 10 contemporary artists at work dredging black's abyss:
Yan Pei-Ming is a Chinese painter best known for his sweeping monochrome portraits of iconic figures created using large brushes and, often, the color black. Yan currently lives and works out of France; his latest show, Night of Colors, will be on display at Fondation Vincent van Gogh Arles through April 26, 2015.
Yan Pei-Ming, “Moonlight,” 2011. Oil on canvas 110" x 157". Courtesy the artist and David Zwirner, New York. via
Robert Longo
Robert Longo is an American hyperrealist painter and sculptor best known for Men in the Cities, a series of charcoal and graphite drawings that showed monochromatic figures in various states of disarray. He recently published a book of work called Stand with Hatje Cantz Verlag, Germany.
Kumi Yamashita is a light & shadow artist who uses the absence of light to create intimate, transient works that blur the line between what viewers see against the wall and the physical artwork taking place. Explains Yamashita, "I sculpt using light and shadow. I construct single or multiple objects and place them in relation to a single light source. The complete artwork is therefore comprised of both the material (the solid objects) and the immaterial (the light or shadow)."
That weird, black stuff you see morphing above is called ferrofluid, a liquid saturated with suspended particles that react in the presence of a magnetic field. Artist Alessandro Brighetti uses the gloopy stuff as a kind of autonomous medium, a surface-coating substance like the nasty Venom symbiote that Spider-Man constantly battles.
Sachiko Kodama, Planet No. 1. via
Kodama is a Japanese artist who, like Brighetti, uses ferrofluids for their uncanny effects. Her works often skirt the line between chemistry projects and kinetic sculptures. Click here to watch a video of Kodama's creations coming to life.
Vincent Como, History of Painting - Installation View, 2006, Gouache and ink on paper, Dimensions variable, Drawings 11 x 8.5 inches, 15 x 12.25 inches framed. Images viaVincent Como is a Brooklyn-based visual artist who works in what he calls his "Black Laboratory." Deeply rooted in Minimalism, Conceptualism, and Color Field Painting, Como states on his website that, "Black is the pure and unrepentant mark of information. […] In applying my research and interest for the history and traditions of Color Theory, Physics, Alchemy, Heavy Metal, Religion and Mythology I am working toward a comprehensive understanding of the interrelation of Black, Darkness, and Matter." Click here to check out his Studio Visit page on MoMA PS1.
Vincent Como, Paradise Lost 006 (detail), 2011-present, Oil on linen, with wood, wax, and fire, 26.25 x 20 x 5.5 inches.
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