Monochrome Multitudes
This exhibition traces “the monochrome” as a fundamental if surprisingly expansive artistic practice. Revisiting classic modernist ideas about flatness, idealized form, and colors, Monochrome Multitudes opens up this seemingly reductive art to reveal its global resonance and creative possibilities while working toward a more expansive narrative of 20th and 21st century art.
Within the exhibition, art is presented in monochromatic groupings—rooms of blue, white, yellow, gray, black, and red works respectively—alternating with thematic sections where single colors engage concerns with the body, urban space, sound, and other topics. Switching between these two types of spaces, the exhibition suggests that works that look alike are often quite different, and that works that look different can share historical, thematic, or conceptual propositions. Throughout, Monochrome Multitudes engages North American art in a global dialogue and emphasizes the significance of multiple media ranging from weaving to wall-painting to video, and multiple materials including footballs, pantyhose, and Vinylite.
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This exhibition traces “the monochrome” as a fundamental if surprisingly expansive artistic practice. Revisiting classic modernist ideas about flatness, idealized form, and colors, Monochrome Multitudes opens up this seemingly reductive art to reveal its global resonance and creative possibilities while working toward a more expansive narrative of 20th and 21st century art.
Within the exhibition, art is presented in monochromatic groupings—rooms of blue, white, yellow, gray, black, and red works respectively—alternating with thematic sections where single colors engage concerns with the body, urban space, sound, and other topics. Switching between these two types of spaces, the exhibition suggests that works that look alike are often quite different, and that works that look different can share historical, thematic, or conceptual propositions. Throughout, Monochrome Multitudes engages North American art in a global dialogue and emphasizes the significance of multiple media ranging from weaving to wall-painting to video, and multiple materials including footballs, pantyhose, and Vinylite.
Artists on show
- Ad Reinhardt
- Alan Cohen
- Alexander Calder
- Allan McCollum
- Alphonse Allais
- Amanda Williams
- Anne Truitt
- Arturo Herrera
- Avery Preesman
- Barbara Crane
- Barnett Newman
- Beauford Delaney
- Bethany Collins
- Byron Kim
- Carlos Cruz-Diez
- Carmen Herrera
- Charles & Ray Eames
- Claire Zeisler
- Dan Peterman
- David Hartt
- David Schutter
- Derek Jarman
- Dorothea Rockburne
- Ellsworth Kelly
- Enrico Castellani
- Ernő Berda
- Felix González-Torres
- Francis Newton Souza
- Francis Picabia
- Frank Gehry
- Fred Sandback
- Gerhard Richter
- Günter Umberg
- Günther Uecker
- Haegue Yang
- Helen Frankenthaler
- Hiroshi Sugimoto
- Hiroyuki Tajima
- Horace Clifford Westermann
- Irena Haiduk
- Jaime Davidovich
- James Turrell
- Jennie C. Jones
- Jessica Stockholder
- Joe Scanlan
- John Plumb
- Jörg Immendorff
- José de Rivera
- Josef Albers
- Jules Olitski
- Karl Wirsum
- Kwon Youngwoo
- Laddie John Dill
- Lee Ufan
- Linda Montano
- Lotte Johanna Jacobi
- Louise Nevelson
- Lucio Fontana
- Lyman Kipp
- Lynda Benglis
- Ma Qiusha
- Magdalena Abakanowicz
- Manfred Mohr
- Marilyn Lenkowsky
- Mark Bradford
- Mary Abbott
- Mun Pyung
- Naama Tsabar
- Raoul Ubac
- Rashid Johnson
- Richard Serra
- Robert Ryman
- Roy DeCarava
- Sally Mann
- Samuel Levi Jones
- Sheila Hicks
- Tadaaki Kuwayama
- Ted Stamm
- Theaster Gates Jr.
- Tobias Rehberger
- Tony Tasset
- Ugo Rondinone
- Wade Guyton
- Walter De Maria
- William Turnbull
- Wolf Vostell
- Yang Jiechang
- Yayoi Kusama
- Yves Klein
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The exhibition groups 120 works various sections and alcoves around similar themes.
The paradox of Monochrome Multitudes is more than titular: Of multitudes there are many, as all but one of the galleries of the Smart Museum are taken up by this ambitious review of the outsized genre.
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