Monochromes       Nothing       Radical Art        

Paint It Black

"Trägt nicht alles, was uns begeistert, die Farbe der Nacht?"
Novalis: Hymnen an die Nacht




     


Paul Bilhaud: "Combat de nègres dans un tunnel," 1882.
[Black canvas with gold frame; reproduced as "Combat de
nègres dans une cave, pendant la nuit" in Allais (1897).]



Kazimir Malevich:
Black Square, 1915



Aleksandr Rodchenko:
Composition 64-68, 1918
     



Man Ray: Photo Noire ("À Robert Desnos –
plein des choses qui absorbent la lumière"),
1930



Dick Higgins:
Black Mirror, 1959


Herbert Zangs: Ohne Titel, 1959


Alberto Burri: Nero Legno, 1961



Quentin Morris: Untitled, 1974



Noriyuki Haraguchi:
Untitled (CD 40), 1981



Allan McCollum:
Plaster Surrogate, 1982/1991



Anish Kapoor:
At the Hub of Things, 1987



Endre Tot: Dada-Messe in Berlin, 1989



Hiroshi Sugimoto: Ionian Sea, 1990



Gunter Umberg:
Untitled, 1991



Sherry Levine:
Black Mirror, 2004



Eric Doeringer:
Black Video Monochrome, 2006
     

 




Pierre Soulages:
Sans Titre, 1948



Arnulf Rainer:
Gitterbild, 1953





 


Robert Rauschenberg:
Untitled (Glossy Black Painting),
1951


Franco Bemporad:
Catrame, 1957
    



Bram Bogart:
Émigré, 1959



Mishio Yushihara:
Untitled, 1959



Lucio Fontana:
Concetto Spaciale, 1960



Bernar Venet:
Relief Carton, 1964



James Lee Byars:
IDK (I Don't Know), 1986



Steven Parrino:
Untitled, 1995



Bernard Aubertin:
Monochrome Noir, 2000

 

 

 




Louise Nevelson:
Relief, 1956



Armando:
21 Bouten, 1961



Vik Muniz:
Viewing from Hiroshima, 2001





More black paintings:

       Malevich & Rodchenko     

       Rauschenberg's monochromes      

       Herbert Zangs      

       Übermalung     

    




References

Alphonse Allais: Album Primo-Avrilesque. Paris: Ollendorf, 1897. [Préface.]

Denys Riout: La peinture monochrome. Histoire et archéologie d'un genre. Édition revue et augmentée. Paris: Gallimard, 2006.