Elusive Form: Color in Space
January 18–April 9, 2023
Teaching Gallery
Teaching Gallery
This installation begins with the question, How does color operate? From the purely rational (systematic) to the intuitive and emotional (poetic), color occupies elusive territory. It is a perceptual phenomenon as much as a subjective experience. It fluctuates and is never static. In dialogue with form, it is also inherently spatial; it can alternately collapse depth or suggest three-dimensionality, extend or contract a volumetric space.
Drawn from the permanent collection of the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, the group of artworks on display highlights a multidisciplinary cohort of artists, graphic designers, and architects who variously engage the substance and appearance as well as the spatial and phenomenological effects of color. The installation is intentionally playful in its juxtaposition of a diverse selection of works from the 1960s to today that speak to the power of color to transform space and ignite the imagination.
Elusive Form is organized by Amela Parčić, lecturer in the College of Architecture in the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts, in conjunction with her course “Color in Space / Space in Color” in spring 2023.
Selected works
Max Bill
X, from the portfolio Max Bill 16 Constellations
1974
Gene Davis
Equinox
1965
Helen Frankenthaler
Variation II on Mauve Corner
1969
Max Bill
XVI, from the portfolio Max Bill 16 Constellations
1974
Max Bill
I, from the portfolio Max Bill 16 Constellations
1974
Max Bill
II, from the portfolio Max Bill 16 Constellations
1974
Max Bill
III, from the portfolio Max Bill 16 Constellations
1974
Max Bill
IV, from the portfolio Max Bill 16 Constellations
1974
Max Bill
V, from the portfolio Max Bill 16 Constellations
1974
Max Bill
VI, from the portfolio Max Bill 16 Constellations
1974
Max Bill
VII, from the portfolio Max Bill 16 Constellations
1974
Max Bill
VIII, from the portfolio Max Bill 16 Constellations
1974
Max Bill
IX, from the portfolio Max Bill 16 Constellations
1974
Max Bill
XI, from the portfolio Max Bill 16 Constellations
1974
Max Bill
XII, from the portfolio Max Bill 16 Constellations
1974
Max Bill
XIII, from the portfolio Max Bill 16 Constellations
1974
Max Bill
XIV, from the portfolio Max Bill 16 Constellations
1974
Max Bill
XV, from the portfolio Max Bill 16 Constellations
1974
Karl Gerstner
Rotbunte Reihen (Red-colored sequences), from Edition MAT
1965
Josef Albers
Homage to the Square: Aurora
1951–55
Henri Matisse
Nature morte aux oranges (II) (Still Life with Oranges [II])
c. 1899
Andrea Zittel
Parallel Planar Panel (Rust, Black, Off-white, Grey)
2016
Georges Rousse
Meisenthal
2002
Susan Eisler
Untitled
1978
Frank Stella
Sinjereli Variation Squared with Colored Ground IV, proof for the series Sinjereli Variations Squared with Colored Grounds
1980Teaching Gallery
The Teaching Gallery is a space in the Kemper Art Museum dedicated to presenting works from the Museum's collection with direct connections to Washington University courses. Teaching Gallery installations are intended to serve as parallel classrooms and can be used to supplement courses through object-based inquiry, research, and learning. Learn more