All cats are grey at night. „Black & White“ Art exhibition at Museum Kunstpalast. Dusseldorf, until July 15, 2018

At night all the cats are grey.

And all cows are black, as, for example, the Hebrew equivalent to this proverb says. Because human experience is the same everywhere: to see, our eyes need light. Although we are not blind or disoriented in the dark, we can recognize objects and outlines, but hardly distinguish colors. Not all cats are grey at night, at least for us humans.
Our eyes have two types of visual cells: the color-sensitive cones, and the rods, responsible for seeing at dusk. When it gets dark, our cones can no longer work properly and „sleep”. Instead, the rods take over. Because of the „dormant“ cones, color vision is more or less inactive at night, and the rods only ensure that we just perceive a few light stimuli at all. Thus, darkness blurs all differences.

“Black & White. From Dürer to Eliasson.”

How exciting the world without color and the sight of grey in all shades between black and white can be, can be experienced in a very radical exhibition at Museum Kunstpalast in Dusseldorf. “Black & White. From Dürer to Eliason“ presents over 80 positions of international artists, across 700 years of history of art, aross diverse media, painting, photography and installation. What they all have in common: they explore the two supposedly “non-colors” black and white. Works by Mantegna, Titian, Rubens, Rembrandt, Ingres, Degas, Picasso, Pollock, Giacometti, Chuck Close, Bridget Riley and Gerhard Richter are shown together with works of the Zero artists Piene, Mack and Uecker. A very special highlight – not just for your eyes – is certainly the walk-in sculptural installation “The Collector’s House” by the Belgian artist Hans op de Beeck. Grey is anything but boring. On my way through this universe of greyness an association came to my mind: Alice in Wonderland follows the white rabbit into the rabbit hole on a dreary afternoon out of shere boredom, and suddenly falls into a completely different world. Just follow the invitation of the collector and trust your eyes! And I promise you, that – when you leave the exhibition through Olafur Eliason’s room installation – that is just the next room, behind the grey collector’s room, you will get ashen and deadly pale. But it’s not from fear. But definitely a very strange and curious feeling after the experience of being the only touch of colour in an entirely grey world. Have fun!