Color Chart: Reinventing Color 1950 to Today

There was a lot to love about Color Chart: Reinventing Color 1950 to Today, a recent exhibition held at The Museum of Modern Art, New York. The concept was simple: how do visual artists choose to manipulate commercial color charts? "Commercial" here meaning the swatches of paint one finds on rectangular cards at the hardware store, or reproduced in brochures at the auto body shop.

You'd suppose that, faced with somewhat limited and very impersonal color choices, artists might create similar pieces. Any art student can tell you, though, that an entire color theory class executing the exact same assignment--right down to color placement and overall dimensions--will produce individual results that are slightly differentiated. There were no assigned requirements for the works in Color Chart, and the results were wonderful, varied and full of personality.

Color Chart closed on May 12 and did not travel. However, it was such a gem of an exhibition that I didn't want organizer Ann Temkin's (The Blanchette Hooker Rockefeller Curator of Painting and Sculpture at The Museum of Modern Art) work to go unlauded here. We have a nice sampling from the 90 works in this Image Gallery, and MoMA has thoughtfully left online a Color Chart website. Additionally, if you follow the links (below) you can view the creation of four installations specifically commissioned for the show. Enjoy!

Color Chart Videos:

• The installation of Jim Lambie's ZOBOP!
• The installation of Sol LeWitt's artworks
• The installation of Damien Hirst's painting John, John
• The installation of Niele Toroni's "painting intervention," with artist interview

Image credit:

Ellsworth Kelly (American, b. 1923)
Colors for a Large Wall, 1951
Oil on canvas, sixty-four panels
94 1/2 x 94 1/2 in. (240 x 240 cm)
Gift of the artist
The Museum of Modern Art, New York
© 2008 Ellsworth Kelly