Chromophobia manifests itself in the many and varied attempts to purge color from culture, to devalue color, to diminish its significance, to deny its complexity.
—David Batchelor
Gagosian Geneva is pleased to present the group exhibition Chromophobia, inspired by the writings of artist David Batchelor and featuring works by Davide Balula, Alan Charlton, Dadamaino, Edmund de Waal, Piero Golia, Loris Gréaud, Callum Innes, Wyatt Kahn, Piero Manzoni, Olivier Mosset, Steven Parrino, Sterling Ruby, Robert Ryman, Richard Serra, Turi Simeti, David Smith, Blair Thurman, Rachel Whiteread, and Christopher Wool.
In his book Chromophobia (2000), Batchelor identifies a widespread suppression of color in Western art and culture, investigating how and why artists, architects, and authors might reject color as a principal strategy or in specific works. Taking his diagnosis as a curatorial conceit, the exhibition brings together paintings, sculptures, and works on paper in which artists eschew color, thus emphasizing form, process, and medium.
Some artists employ black and white to represent illusionary voids and negative space or, conversely, real physicality. In Volume (1959), a black canvas with holes by Milanese painter Dadamaino, the gallery wall is engaged as a compositional element; in Achrome (1958), Piero Manzoni covered the canvas with rough gesso mixed with glue and kaolin, then draped it over a support where it sagged and creased as it dried. Richard Serra’s Slow Weight (1993), a black rectangle described in thick oil stick on paper, asserts a palpable olfactory and sculptural presence in space.
