#colorfocuswhite

[baylornonwovenstructures]

Color Focus: White

Join me and explore white this week to experience for yourself how this color impacts your mood, attitudes, and behavior. We will look at how and why artists might use white in their work in our white discussion on Thursday, so be sure to wear your whites!

Images above, from top:

some white art

a white quote

color symbolism infographic on white

[colorcapacity]

White Research

This week I chose to research Le Corbusier’s “Villa Savoye” and Kazimir Malevich’s “Suprematist Composition: White on White”. I felt both of these pieces were outside my comfort zone and was intrigued to research them.

I found “Villa Savoye” by Le Corbusier to be incredibly significant in Le Corbusier’s career because it was the culmination of a decade of work to articulate modern architecture. “Villa Savoye” was also an example of Corbusier’s Five Points of Architecture, which he viewed as a universal system that could be applied to any architectural site. This work was important because it represents Le Corbusier’s re-conception of the very nature of architecture, and his attempt to express a timeless look through the language of architectural modernism in 1929. This work of architecture is art because it has been designed to be both functional and elegant and the execution supports Corbusier’s idea that modern machines could create highly precise objects like classical forms valued by the ancient Greeks. I believe that Le Corbusier chose white in order to showcase how white accentuate’s the energy and fluidity seen in this design. 

When researching “Suprematist Composition: White on White” by Kazimir Malevich I found that much of its importance lies in its geometric abstraction because in 1918 it was incredibly radical to have no reference to any outside reality. It is art because it is an expression of Suprematism which was Malevich’s theory of “the supremacy of pure feeling or perception in the pictorial arts” which was countercultural at the time. This artwork teaches us about the importance of white and it’s ability to generate a feeling not of borders defining a shape, but of a space without limits. Malevich chose white in this piece to accentuate the liberating sense of infinity and signify a realm of higher feeling, or “pure form”.

[bexthebearartblog]

White

James Abbott McNeil Whistler “Symphony in White No 1: The White Girl” 1862, oil on canvas

According to my research, this painting was one of great controversy during it’s time. The girl in the white dress seems to be the picture of purity, but according to my reserved the crushed lilies in her hand symbolize the loss of innocence. I find this piece of work very interesting. The white tones throughout the painting give it a ghostly quality. Almost as though the painting is saying the girls innocence is a thing of the past a ghostly memory. I also find the rug made of the skin of a dead wolf very unsettling. I find the way that this artist used white to symbolize both innocence and the loss of innocence very interesting.

Sources:

https://www.aaronartprints.org/whistler-symphonyinwhiteno1thewhitegirl.php

https://www.theartstory.org/artist/whistler-james-abbott-mcneill/artworks/

  Jasper Johns “White Flag”, 1955, encaustic, oil, newsprint and charcoal on canvas.

To start off this piece is very interesting to me. I feel that not unlike one of the other examples of white artwork that this piece to seems to have an oppressive white supremacist aura about it. However, this piece appears to be less about symbolism and more about composition. According to my research, the artist built this piece in different sections and used the white color and off tones to “highlight the way the flag was made”. I thought that this was really neat. The different tones of white add such a unique depth and abstractness to the work.

Source:

https://www.metmuseum.org/en/art/collection/search/487065

[jillxhahn]

Color Focus: White

#1.) Jasper Johns “White Flag”, 1955, encaustic, oil, newsprint and charcoal on canvas.

“White Flag” was both the largest of Jasper Johns’ series of flags and the first to be fully monochrome. Because the image is of a familiar subject, viewers are drawn to the image, focusing on the tones and the materials used. What is most significant about this painting is the way is was created. The artwork is an encaustic, which was a method of preserving the dead in the 2nd century in Egypt. It was apart of the embalming process and was used to make portraits. That is exactly what Johns did. He embalmed the flag, making a portrait out of it using materials once purposed to wrap up the dead. It was a bold move in the 1950′s, a very uncommon approach at the time. I believe it causes the viewer to approach the flag differently. The ghostly white indicates a call to remembrance, to really pay attention to the history. It was Johns’s dream to paint the flag and yet his final piece influences viewers to remember the dreams that led to the formation of our nation.

https://www.metmuseum.org/en/art/collection/search/487065

https://www.phaidon.com/agenda/art/articles/2014/july/29/the-incredible-story-behind-flag-by-jasper-johns/

https://arthive.com/artists/62059~Jasper_Jones/works/489792~White_flag

#2.) James Abbott McNeil Whistler “Symphony in White No 1: The White Girl” 1862, oil on canvas

determine what is significant about the artworks. What is the generally accepted importance of the work? What makes it art? What does the artwork teach us about white? Why did the artist choose to use white in the work?

Painting is white seems especially challenging and even more bold. Whistler took an extensive amount of time studying the white and creating and overlaying variations of tones in the picture. The image above is quite extraordinary in that causes viewers, especially at the time is was displayed, uncomfortable due to her abnormal and private house outfit and blank stare. However, every element still purposely promotes beauty. White can usually represent innocence, purity, quietness, and elegance. In the painting, the woman is depicted as beautiful, calm, and serene. Angelic in a way. I loved what one critic said about his work, saying that his art has a musical element to it, which is what lead to the title. Another interesting aspect is the innocence of the flower and fully covered house-dress and the aggressive or authoritarian representation of the bear skin rug below her. It is an interesting contrast. I found it interesting how much Whistler worked on this piece only to get rejected. I personally think it was bold to be so intentional with the use of white in his work; to allow all the truth to show in the final artwork. That is the purpose of white: to uncover the truth and to remain transparent throughout a time of exploration.

One quote from the sources below that I appreciated: “By limiting his palette, minimizing tonal contrast, and sharply skewing the perspective, he flattened forms and emphasized their abstract patterns.”

https://www.nga.gov/collection/highlights/whistler-symphony-in-white-no-1-the-white-girl.html

https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.12198.html

https://www.theartstory.org/artist/whistler-james-abbott-mcneill/artworks/

[bricecborchers]

White

Jasper Johns “White Flag”, 1955, encaustic, oil, newsprint and charcoal on canvas.

This piece looks like the American flag, but all in white. My first thought is that someone is just trying to take away the color from the flag. That thought evolved into me thinking that they are trying to take away color from the flag in another way, in a racial way. So often America is the only country that deals with white supremacy or neo-nazism, whatever you want to call it, its still disgusting. I think this piece highlights the racial inequalities that America has. This piece was also done in 1955, when Rosa Parks stood up for herself on the bus. I believe that this piece was heavily inspired by the civil rights movement of the time. The white in this clearly represents the powerful yet racist white people of the U.S.

Le Corbusier (Charles-Edouard Jeanneret), “Villa Savoye”, 1929-31, reinforced concrete, Poissy-sur-Seine, France.

I always love looking at architecture as an art form. Villa Savoye is all about architecture in the “new world.” Just like the U.S., France was having an economic boom during the 1920s. That boom led to more inventions and changed how the French lived. Later France would also go through a Great Depression like the U.S. as well, but I don't believe this piece was inspired by that. This seems to be inspired by the new world everyone was living in. I think the white stands for renewal that France had from going through the first World War. 

[colorinbloom]

Color Focus: White

Le Corbusier (Charles-Edouard Jeanneret), “Villa Savoye”, 1929-31, reinforced concrete, Poissy-sur-Seine, France.

This villa is considered to be a work of modernist architecture. Modernism is a movement based on minimalism and function over form. Jeanneret’s use of white could have been inspired by the ideals of modernism, since white is associated with simplicity. Choosing a different color may have drawn attention away from the futuristic, sleek design and overcomplicated his work. This building is considered by many to be a work of art because it pushes the boundaries of architecture. It is mainly composed of concrete, similar to a sculpture. It also uses principles of geometry to achieve its innovative shape and function. 

James Abbott McNeil Whistler “Symphony in White No 1: The White Girl” 1862, oil on canvas

This painting is part of a series of several paintings of women wearing white. Whistler has stated multiple times that he creates art just for the sake of beauty, and he doesn’t have any implicit meaning in his work. However, the popular interpretation of this series has to do with innocence and virginity. Critics have said that the white dress, white lily, and white background are symbolic of female innocence. The wolf skin is said to represent the loss or corruption of that innocence. The allusions to feminine virtue are seemingly overt, and the overpowering use of white only reinforces this. Maybe Whistler is right and there is no meaning, and the symbols only come from his own subliminal ideas about women. There is no way to really tell. 

[just-a-strawman]

Kazimir Malevich “Suprematist Composition: White on White”, 1918, oil on canvas.

Inspired by the “floating and transcendence” of airplane photography, Malevich’s Suprematist Composition was one of the first of its kind: an abstract painting that had no external reference to reality. Malevich wished to capture pure perception, to show a viewer an image that caused them to not look at a ‘thing’ they recognized from reality, but simply look at what was in front of them in its most base and unattainable form.

Both removed from reality, and deeply personal to its creator, Malevich used white in “White on White” to capture a transcendence of individual color; to “swim in the white free abyss,” as referred to in his 1919 manifesto.

Jasper Johns “White Flag”, 1955, encaustic, oil, newsprint and charcoal on canvas.

Jasper Johns was known to present common images in unusual or unexpected settings and styles, and was a pioneer to such movements as pop, minimal, and conceptional art. “White Flag” is one of his early works, and takes an extremely common icon/symbol and completely changes our perception of it. Stripping away the color of the flag and casting its shape in a textured, waxy medium (a combo of beeswax, paper, and white pigment), Johns “shifts our attention from the familiarity of the image to the way in which it is made.”

Johns’s use of white is important in producing this effect, as without color the flag loses much of its familiarity. If color were included, this would draw the majority of focus towards itself, to the detriment of Johns’s intended focal point: the texture.

[cinemagraphicmemory]

White Say What?

This research has been seriously fascinating for me.

I decided to research “White Flag” by Jasper Johns. (1955, encaustic, oil, newsprint and charcoal on canvas.) 

This piece was the first flag he chose to create in monochrome, and he chose white.

“As Johns explained it, encaustic allowed him to be more efficient and, at the same time, more deliberate in his gestures. In other words, because pigmented wax sets quickly, Johns could add another mark or strip of saturated paper or cloth with the assurance that any previously laid marks would remain unaffected. In this way, each discrete trace was preserved, effectively embalmed.”

This art was created with intentionality towards its unique use of material.  The material is what makes this piece stand out.  The color is drained while still preserving the texture and details of the piece, keeping the integrity of the flag itself.  The white tells a story of beauty and that color doesn’t necessarily create the story, but sometimes the material and the intent is what makes it art.

I also studied Le Corbusier (Charles-Edouard Jeanneret), “Villa Savoye”, 1929-31, reinforced concrete, Poissy-sur-Seine, France.

“Completed in 1929, Villa Savoye is a modern take on a French country house that celebrates and reacts to the new machine age.” The white color gives a modern perspective on an older style.  This day and age, white homes with large windows that allow a lot of light in are very popular.  White walls, while not exactly the most exciting, allow for creative work to be done in a space as well as well as aide in the brightening factor.

This design was then used as a reference to manufacture homes quicker in the future.  It became a floor plan and a modern day example of what the world enjoys in a home... well.  Most.  The openness, the bright light and white.  It is a breath of fresh air.

Sources:

White Flag

https://www.metmuseum.org/en/art/collection/search/487065

https://www.phaidon.com/agenda/art/articles/2014/july/29/the-incredible-story-behind-flag-by-jasper-johns/

Villa Savoye

https://www.archdaily.com/84524/ad-classics-villa-savoye-le-corbusier