Colours have their own symbolism in cultures, religions and history. Black and white are, strictly speaking, not colours. However, light and night play a major role in art and design and take various symbolic meanings. 'Black & White | Symbolic Meaning in Fine art and Pattern' presents works from the museum collection that evidence how gimmicky artists and designers interpret the symbolic pregnant of black and white. The exhibition features works by artists including Jorge Baldessari, Maria Roosen, Alet Pilon,Jeroen Eisinga, Marinus Boezem, Bart Hess, Célio Braga, Studio Formafantasma and Felieke van der Leest.

Bezoeker bij de zwanenrok. Foto: Josefina Eikenaar
Wish I had one (Zwanenrok) – Alet Pilon

BLACK – WHITE

Opposites
Colours are wavelengths reflected by objects to the human eye. White is pure light and black is the absence of light. In many cultures, these two not-colours are associated with life and death rituals. For essential questions about identity, the opposites black and white are oftentimes chosen. In Marinus Boezem'southward (*1934) installation 'The absence of the artist'(1970), also every bit in the oeuvre of the belatedly Anna Verwey-Verschuure (1935-1980), black and white are used to address themes such as identity, presence and absence. Argentinian conceptual artist Jorge Baldessari (*1931) makes optimal use of the contrast betwixt black and white in his embroidered verse form 'Tools' (1994-95), a conversation with the divine creator who expelled mankind from paradise. In the more abstruse works past Lam de Wolf (*1949) and Elke Lutgerink (*1982), black and white announced as both each other's opposites and continuum.

Bezoeker bij het werk van Alet Pilon. Foto: Josefina Eikenaar
Zwarte Madonna – Alet Pilon

WHITE

Innocence, purity, loyalty
In many cultures, white is seen as the color of innocence and virginity, purity, loyalty and peace. In the Westward, white wear and decoration are symbolic of the joy around births, baptisms and weddings. The color is also associated with women equally virgins, mothers and caregivers. These themes observe a playful and poetic expression in the works by Regula Maria Müller (*1961), Maria Roosen (*1957) and Hinke Schreuders (*1969) and the jewellery by Felieke van der Leest (*1968), just they as well examine female roles.

In many African and Asian cultures, as well every bit in medieval Europe, white is the traditional colour of death and mourning. In the West, meanwhile, black has symbolised mourning since the Renaissance. Miriam Verbeek (*1960) refers to these intercultural differences in her series of blackness and white mourning jewellery. White represents purity, holiness and eternity in religions including Christianity and Islam. Christian Bastiaans' (*1951) 'Madonna of Humility' (2003) from the seriesHurt Modelsreflects the Christian meaning of white every bit an expression of purity. However, the delicate sculpture made of iron wire and gauze primarily explores the vulnerability of human being existence.

Creative person Alet Pilon (*1949) also explores the symbolic connotations of black and white in her work and often gives it a surreal twist. Her white 'ZT (Swan wings)' from 1995 is a sculptural slice that can exist worn around the shoulders. Her work evokes associations with the famous ballet slice of the dying swan and the fate of the mythical Greek hero Icarus. Icarus' wings of swan feathers and wax melted when he flew too close to the sun. Pilon's swan wings seem to be an echo of this shattered dream.

'Colours are wavelengths reflected past objects to the human centre. White is pure light and blackness is the absenteeism of light'

Zaalopname Black & White. Foto Josefina Eikenaar
Gallery view – Blackness & White

BLACK

Decease, mourning and the concealed
Black has unlike associations across cultures and religions: death, mystery and the darker side of human nature simply as well ability, dignity and prestige. The works by Bart Hess (*1984) and Brazilian artist Célio Braga (*1963) subtly correspond the subconscious sensual side of humans. For his 'Stimulus: string reflexes, Field of study B.M.' (2016), Hess was inspired by the tactility of pare, and specifically the motility of testicles. He partly developed this interactive installation in the museum'southward TextielLab. Braga's objects from theNegrosseries are intense black shapes that refer to processes of expiry, mourning and transformation. A fascinating sculpture that defies traditional representation is Pilon's 'Black Madonna' (2018): a dark, hairy half human, half animal dressed in tough black gloves and boots with a holster slung around her waist. At the aforementioned fourth dimension, she tenderly holds her child in her artillery in a symbol of maternal care.

From 29 March 2019, come and surround yourself with the quiet of the works in 'Blackness & White| Symbolic Meaning in Art and Design.