The National Gallery opens on artist dirty trade secrets.
Til 18th February
Going Noir in its latest exhibition Monochrome at the National gallery is particularly good for learning. I recommend the catalogue (£18) it’ll end up being one of the most helpful books about technique. Artists could be most experimental, as these near complete studies let them work out compositional ideas with great freedom.
Artists would collect each others, so they become like conversations between painters.
Later they become their own thing, a genre that plays against colour, or uses a poetic conceit. Illusionistic qualities particularly sculptural are brightened. Sculptures verge on coming to life, lightly hued with the beginning blushes of colour.
In modern times black and white/monochrome become even more their own – abstracted, or in tension to photography
Knowingly. I like the Gustave Moreau, (the Symbolist), always seems on the verge of abstraction. The large study let’s him leave blanks in the composition that strength it as well as creating more possibilities of movement as we read it. There’s meaning I. The handling of the paint and the blanks as much as the narrative. It has an interesting quality of what the Italians called infinito – unfinished…
https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/whats-on/exhibitions/monochrome-painting-in-black-and-white
Monochrome: Painting in Black and White
Until 18 February 2018 FINAL WEEKS
Sainsbury Wing
Admission prices
£14 weekdays (Monday – Friday)
£16 weekends (Saturday – Sunday)
Pre-book online and save £2
Please note, only one discount can be applied per ticket.
Opening hours
Open daily 10am–6pm (last admission 5.15pm)
Late night Fridays until 9pm (last admission 8.15pm)
Under-12s
Free with a paying adult. Ticket required. Call 0800 912 6958 (booking fee applies).