Colours accept their own symbolism in cultures, religions and history. Blackness and white are, strictly speaking, not colours. However, lite and dark play a major role in fine art and design and have various symbolic meanings. 'Blackness & White | Symbolic Meaning in Art and Pattern' presents works from the museum collection that show how contemporary artists and designers interpret the symbolic meaning of blackness and white. The exhibition features works past 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 homo eye. White is pure calorie-free and black is the absence of light. In many cultures, these two non-colours are associated with life and death rituals. For essential questions most identity, the opposites black and white are frequently called. In Marinus Boezem'due south (*1934) installation 'The absence of the creative person'(1970), besides as in the oeuvre of the late Anna Verwey-Verschuure (1935-1980), black and white are used to address themes such as identity, presence and absence. Argentinian conceptual creative person Jorge Baldessari (*1931) makes optimal use of the dissimilarity between black and white in his embroidered poem 'Tools' (1994-95), a conversation with the divine creator who expelled mankind from paradise. In the more abstract works by Lam de Wolf (*1949) and Elke Lutgerink (*1982), black and white appear every bit both each other'due south 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 every bit the colour of innocence and virginity, purity, loyalty and peace. In the West, white wear and decoration are symbolic of the joy around births, baptisms and weddings. The colour is also associated with women as virgins, mothers and caregivers. These themes find a playful and poetic expression in the works past Regula Maria Müller (*1961), Maria Roosen (*1957) and Hinke Schreuders (*1969) and the jewellery by Felieke van der Leest (*1968), simply they also examine female person roles.

In many African and Asian cultures, also as in medieval Europe, white is the traditional color of death and mourning. In the W, meanwhile, black has symbolised mourning since the Renaissance. Miriam Verbeek (*1960) refers to these intercultural differences in her series of black 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 seriesInjure Modelsreflects the Christian meaning of white as an expression of purity. Nevertheless, the delicate sculpture made of fe wire and gauze primarily explores the vulnerability of human being beingness.

Creative person Alet Pilon (*1949) too 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 piece that can be worn around the shoulders. Her work evokes associations with the famous ballet piece 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'south swan wings seem to be an echo of this shattered dream.

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

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

Black

Decease, mourning and the concealed
Black has different associations across cultures and religions: death, mystery and the darker side of human nature but also power, nobility and prestige. The works by Bart Hess (*1984) and Brazilian artist Célio Braga (*1963) subtly represent the hidden sensual side of humans. For his 'Stimulus: cord reflexes, Subject B.M.' (2016), Hess was inspired by the tactility of skin, and specifically the motion of testicles. He partly developed this interactive installation in the museum'south TextielLab. Braga's objects from theNegrosseries are intense black shapes that refer to processes of death, mourning and transformation. A fascinating sculpture that defies traditional representation is Pilon's 'Black Madonna' (2018): a dark, hairy one-half human being, one-half animate being dressed in tough black gloves and boots with a holster slung around her waist. At the same time, she tenderly holds her child in her arms in a symbol of maternal care.

From 29 March 2019, come up and surround yourself with the tranquility of the works in 'Black & White| Symbolic Pregnant in Fine art and Pattern.