black and white are not extremes of any universe. white is not the opposite of black, nor this one is the adversary of the other. white is not the melted sum of all colours. black is not the annihilation of all colours. there are no nuances, no gradations nor scales between black and white because black and white are colours, different from each other, as ochre is to magenta, and tile sienna to forest earth tone, and glowing cherry red to rat grey, and lichen dry yellow to blue of the impossible, and sanguina to turquoise.
instead of being black and white, chess pieces could have been red and green, like the portugal flag. the colour of a white piece’s shadow is exactly the same as the colour of a black piece’s shadow.
if purple is the colour of some plums, white is that of the sky covered by clouds. if gilthead is the colour of burnt stubble straw, black is rather the colour of the celestial esplanade before it is filled with skylights, and (even) beforejuan larrea published its secrets.
white and black are colours, but they are certainly two essential colours, which have alternated after time the symbolic representation of mourning. however, are black and white really colours?
why does white have to represent silence better than any other colour? wouldn’t black be just as good? why does black always have to take the pictorial representation of the night? aren’t there white nights as well, which are often the ones we remember the most?
god knows why we tend to think of a dark colour when we refer to the depths of things. however, we think of a light tone when we express the manifestation of light. in this exhibition, light and dark are the only guides of an eclectic itinerary for the collection and for the history of galeria cadaqués- from concrete art to conceptual, through new figuration, pop art and photography. a radical journey that aims to return to the origins of the gallery while uncovering works of some of the most dazzling artists of recent times.
joan brossa, in his poemes de seny i cabell, wrote these verses –that we have translated from catalan:
white paint pot.
a plasterer’s camp at the pole.
black paint pot.
a black stealing coal
in a hole.
why should white and black be colours that stretch the rainbow – one, towards one side; the other, towards the other -, as the faced foundations of a bridge between which the pointed arch-eye paves the way for water to run or drought to rest? does the water of the river not reflect as clearly and harmoniously the dark, threatening black cloud that a while ago was just dark brown with a reddish rim, and this munificently white moon that when beginning to rise above the roofs of the city of florence was matt pumpkin colour and seems to have undergone a reverse maturing process?
black and white are not extremes of any universe. they are the abstract and perfect celebration of the colours in which the human eye plunges.