Liam Gillick, Color as Program

The exhibition deals with the theme of color as a programmatic tool. It brings together works and objects from the realms of art and cultural history spanning more than a hundred years. With the advent of Modernism, color itself became an autonomous medium of art and design. As a result, the use of color as a material has changed dramatically. In the wake of the fastpaced development of digital technologies in recent years, our perception of color and our understanding of the role of art have been shaped by increasingly intense chromatic experiences. The powerful impact of color touches all disciplines, not only aesthetically, but also politically and economically. By the same token, its commercial use in Capitalist societies has increased exponentially.

The central theme of Color as program is the artistic preoccupation with the affective and representative power of color. More than ever before, the meaning of color has become a complex construct of social conventions. The visual arts play a central role in the exhibition – not least because of their capacity to open up abstract spaces of thought.

The tour through the exhibition and its associative approach are integral to the overarching concept, which is further enhanced by the expansive site-specific architecture developed for the large central gallery by the artist and co-curator Liam Gillick.

Color as program is the first exhibition to be developed by the gallery’s entire curatorial team and thus brings together a wide range of different research interests and specialisms.