Robert Longo, Untitled (Skull Island). Signed and dated 'Longo 2005' (lower right). Graphite and charcoal on paper. 66 1/8 x 95 1/8in. (168 x 241.5cm.). Executed in 2005. via
Karl Lagerfeld said it went with everything; Johnny Cash said he never took it off. Roger Deakins mastered lighting with it, and Monet so knew its elemental nature that he hardly used it in his paintings, on principle.
Black is—and isn't—a color, but from early Suprematist paintings like Black Cube, through critical modern paintings, to today's near impossible (but still totally improbable) advancements in its application, one that still refuses to share the limit to its depths. On this Black Friday, invest last night's thanks in our look at contemporary artists who, today, still dive into its boundless abyss:
Frederik De Wilde
Frederik De Wilde, NASABlck-Crcl#1, 2014. Courtesy Frederik De Wilde. Picture © Frederik De Wilde. via
Best known as the creator of "Blacker-Than-Black," a color that employs nanoparticles in the near-total absorption of visible light, Frederik De Wilde is an artist-scientist pursuing what he calls, “the post sublime,” a microscopic apex he finds between chemistry, physics, and artistry. Most recently, De Wilde took to Carroll / Fletcher gallery in London to unveil NanoBlck-Sqr #1, a work developed in collaboration with NASA and Rice University.
Particles Can Die Too (2013) © Frederik De Wilde. Images via
Blacker-than-black, seen under a scanning electron microscope © Frederik De Wilde
Yan Pei-Ming
Yan Pei-Ming, BRUCE LEE. 2009. Oil on canvas. 200 by 204 cm.; 78¾ by 80¾ in. via
Yan Pei-Ming is a Chinese painter best known for his sweeping monochrome portraits of iconic figures created using large brushes and, often, the color black. Yan currently lives and works out of France; his latest show, Night of Colors, will be on display at Fondation Vincent van Gogh Arles through April 26, 2015.
Yan Pei-Ming, “Moonlight,” 2011. Oil on canvas 110" x 157". Courtesy the artist and David Zwirner, New York. via
Robert Longo
Robert Longo, Untitled (Big Shark). 2007.Charcoal on mounted paper. 731/8 x 70 inches/185.7 x 177.8cm. via
Robert Longo is an American hyperrealist painter and sculptor best known for Men in the Cities, a series of charcoal and graphite drawings that showed monochromatic figures in various states of disarray. He recently published a book of work called Stand with Hatje Cantz Verlag, Germany.
Robert Longo, Men in the Cities. 1979. Charcoal and graphite on paper. via
Kumi Yamashita
Kumi Yamashita, Veil, 2013. 190cm x 137cm x 31cm. Light, fabric, shadow. Temporary installation at Villa Olmo, Como Italy. via
Kumi Yamashita is a light & shadow artist who uses the absence of light to create intimate, transient works that blur the line between what viewers see against the wall and the physical artwork taking place. Explains Yamashita, "I sculpt using light and shadow. I construct single or multiple objects and place them in relation to a single light source. The complete artwork is therefore comprised of both the material (the solid objects) and the immaterial (the light or shadow)."
Kumi Yamashita, Untitled (Child). 2011. 183cm x 183cm x 10cm. Carved wood, single light source, shadow. via
Serge Alain Nitegeka
Serge Alain Nitegeka, Barricade I: Studio Study VII, 2014. Paint on Wood. 79 1/8 x 96 x 3 inches 201 x 243.8 x 7.6 cm. Courtesy of Marianne Boesky gallery
Currently on display at Marianne Boesky in New York City, Serge Alain Nitegeka's Morphings in Black works use black as a kind of minimalist scaffolding for abstracted 3D images he paints.
Alessandro Brighetti
That weird, black stuff you see morphing above is called ferrofluid, a liquid saturated with suspended particles that react in the presence of a magnetic field. Artist Alessandro Brighetti uses the gloopy stuff as a kind of autonomous medium, a surface-coating substance like the nasty Venom symbiote that Spider-Man constantly battles.
Alessandro Brighetti, Schizophrenia. via
Anish Kapoor
Anish Kapoor, Memory, 2008. Cor-Ten steel, 14.5 x 9 x 4.5 m. Commissioned by Deutsche Bank in consultation with the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation for the Deutsche Guggenheim Berlin. Installation view: Anish Kapoor: Memory, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, October 21, 2009 - March 28, 2010. Artwork © Anish Kapoor Photo: David Heald © The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York
No stranger to The Creators Project, the influential master sculptor recently announced that he would be using Vantablack, a new substance he describes as "astonishing, so deeply black that your eyes can’t really see it at all," in his new works.
Sachiko Kodama
Sachiko Kodama, Planet No. 1. via
Kodama is a Japanese artist who, like Brighetti, uses ferrofluids for their uncanny effects. Her works often skirt the line between chemistry projects and kinetic sculptures. Click here to watch a video of Kodama's creations coming to life.
Matt Mignanelli
Matt Mignanelli, Heavy. via
Matt Mignanelli is a New York-based painter who uses different shades of black to create abstract, modern geometries that look like they're practically popping out of their frames. His latest show, Stories Unfold, debuted at Richard Heller Galllery in California on November 22, and is on display through December 20. Click here to watch VICE eat pizza with Mignanelli at his Bushwick studio.
Matt Mignanelli, BQE, LIE, FDR. via
Vincent Como
Vincent Como, History of Painting - Installation View, 2006, Gouache and ink on paper, Dimensions variable, Drawings 11 x 8.5 inches, 15 x 12.25 inches framed. Images via
Vincent Como is a Brooklyn-based visual artist who works in what he calls his "Black Laboratory." Deeply rooted in Minimalism, Conceptualism, and Color Field Painting, Como states on his website that, "Black is the pure and unrepentant mark of information. [...] In applying my research and interest for the history and traditions of Color Theory, Physics, Alchemy, Heavy Metal, Religion and Mythology I am working toward a comprehensive understanding of the interrelation of Black, Darkness, and Matter." Click here to check out his Studio Visit page on MoMA PS1.
Vincent Como, Paradise Lost 006 (detail), 2011-present, Oil on linen, with wood, wax, and fire, 26.25 x 20 x 5.5 inches.
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