Color, the misery of painting

 

Easiness should not ever be trusted when it comes to conceive and design. What seems given or obvious always deserves to be questioned. Most of the time, the things that we are instantly perceptible are tricks or screens that we may chose (or not) to avoid.

Sometimes, circumstances or some incident may also reveal the limits of our perception and force us to go through appearance.

When contemplating Malevitch’s White on White, or works from Soulages, its absence is blindingly obvious : color. Nonetheless, the artistic work doesn’t fade or disappear. You may also observe that you had already accepted this absence for stone or bronze sculpture or for black and white photography.

Whether you wish to see it or go along with it at dawn or twilight, in this blue haze commonly called “the blue hour”, does it mean we do not need color to represent the factual reality or an oneiric world? And if we do not need it, what about painting? Color seems to be existing to please our retina and distract it from what is essential. And like for the Russian dolls, what cannot be removed without removing sight itself is Light and Light only. Color is at best secondary. At worst, it is intended to mislead those who feel more comfortable with easiness, or content themselves of what seems visible. Indeed, a real dogma collapses and is replaced by a subversive event: Color is misery in painting ?!