black

‘... It is so black you can barely see it’ – this is how artist Anish Kapoor described Vantablack, the blackest substance in the world, after he secured exclusive rights to its use. Kapoor’s words imply that the colour black poses a fundamental question – it questions our very ability to see. Blackness questions our trust in that which can be seen: it declares restraint and simplicity while acting ambiguously and confusingly when a flat surface descends into depths that draw the eye and gives rise to new experiences.

Ihor Yanovich’s exhibition Czerń (Blackness), the opening event of the Galeria Ya Lviv Art Centre, is personal enough for visitors to be able to enter its author’s subjective space and experience what he has, but also offers other experiences as well, asking an ever broader, defining question: what is the experience of contemplation while surrounded by blackness?
The project also involves a display of Yanovych’s works (black occupies the central spot in his painting and sketch series), as well as the works of various other artists from the 20th and 21st centuries. After all, didn’t the Black Square start the most controversial discussion about the fate of art? Kazimir Malevich’s black shapes – the square, circle and cross, Kapoor’s superblack, Ad Reinhardt’s black paintings, the Rothko Chapel, the rhythm, space, texture and gesture in the black works of Pierre Soulages, Franz Klein and Robert Motherwell, even Banksy’s stencils – they all make up the rich history of a colour that touches our subjectivity. The choice to use black is motivated by various reasons and themes – religious, political and psychoanalytical.

However, black is also a non-colour. The painter’s works may indicate his giving up on working with colour. It is that feature of black that is important to Yanovych, who limits his colour palette to achieve a specific effect. Yanovych’s Czerń is a series about how matter behaves on its own (when the paint is poured or drips onto the canvas) combined with the author’s gestures (when black lines are reminiscent of calligraphy or form controlled, saturated – or quite the opposite – fading – stains). In these works, black is not the blackest, instead materialising a subjective space that is sensitive to expressions of various intensities, with space for sharp gestures, anticipation and observation of the changing matter, dripping, reliefs and monochromatic surfaces. The black itself is not a symbol of anything here. It encourages discernment and marks its presence.
Ever since Yanovych began using music as his main source of inspiration, his black has been thrumming.