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Grisaille: Shades of grey from the collection

Feb 03, 2018 - Mar 11, 2018
The French word ‘Grisaille’ is a term in art theory for the practice of using a colour palette restricted to grey. Grey is an intermediate colour, neither black nor white, and is often associated with a sense of tedium or lifelessness. However it is also a colour that can be neutral, elegant and calm - discordant qualities which are intriguing.
Artists have long used the wide range of tonal variations available in the colour grey to explore shape, contrast and weight, restricting the colour palette focuses the eye on structure, technique and subject matter. This is evident in Pablo Picasso's powerful antiwar painting Guernica 1937 painted in a palette of grey, black and white. The starting point for this exhibition came from the recent re-discovery of a relatively unknown and undervalued painting in the Newcastle Art Gallery collection by Warren Knight (born 1941) Do-to-kal 1969. Knight arrived in Australia in 1967 and was included in an exhibition of contemporary Australian Art by the Swiss curator Harald Szeemann (1933-2005) who was brought to Australia by John Kaldor in 1971. Project 2 was held in Sydney’s Bonython Gallery and in Melbourne’s National Gallery of Victoria in 1971.
This exhibition is drawn exclusively from the Newcastle Art Gallery collection and aims to explore all aspects of this achromatic wonder.   
The French word ‘Grisaille’ is a term in art theory for the practice of using a colour palette restricted to grey. Grey is an intermediate colour, neither black nor white, and is often associated with a sense of tedium or lifelessness. However it is also a colour that can be neutral, elegant and calm - discordant qualities which are intriguing.
Artists have long used the wide range of tonal variations available in the colour grey to explore shape, contrast and weight, restricting the colour palette focuses the eye on structure, technique and subject matter. This is evident in Pablo Picasso's powerful antiwar painting Guernica 1937 painted in a palette of grey, black and white. The starting point for this exhibition came from the recent re-discovery of a relatively unknown and undervalued painting in the Newcastle Art Gallery collection by Warren Knight (born 1941) Do-to-kal 1969. Knight arrived in Australia in 1967 and was included in an exhibition of contemporary Australian Art by the Swiss curator Harald Szeemann (1933-2005) who was brought to Australia by John Kaldor in 1971. Project 2 was held in Sydney’s Bonython Gallery and in Melbourne’s National Gallery of Victoria in 1971.
This exhibition is drawn exclusively from the Newcastle Art Gallery collection and aims to explore all aspects of this achromatic wonder.   

Contact details

1 Laman Street Newcastle, Australia 2300
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