“Red is a whore colour”: Explorations in Black and White

Paintings by Sharon Erlichman

February 19th – March 2nd, 2014 | Cell Gallery | Opening Reception: Feb 20th, 2014

This was easily one of my more memorable moments at art school—from an art teacher who was anchored to earth tones. Red is a colour I embrace in my abstract work. The two “red” paintings on exhibit use red as a key element in my response to the economic meltdown and resulting effects on the world economy. The combination of greed, avarice and a “devil may care” attitude made red a necessary thematic colour .

However, that “succinct” teaching moment stuck in my mind all this time and I began to think about an interesting counterpoint to red. I began to think that a more minimalist approach in black and white would be an interesting exercise to develop at the beginning of each studio day.

By restricting my colour choices to primarily black and white acrylic paint, I experimented with the ranges of tonality and composition and it became a liberating process. The pouring of the paint created a move-ment and dynamism where the tonalites merged and separated. True black and true white exist only as a convenient construct — it is what you do with the nuances that matter I went further in my Black and White Panel Series which consists of 20 panels; all the same dimension, all done on the same midtone grey paper. A dialogue emerged where one panel ended up responding and evolving into to the movement of another panel. These panels ended up naturally “grouping” themselves upon viewing –a result of working on many panels in sequence and in the same time.

I gained a further appreciation for the process of limiting my palette—however “whore” red will always have a soft spot in my heart.

“There is no light painting or dark painting, but simply relations of tones.”

– Paul Cezanne

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