As Josef Albers wrote in 1963, “If one says ‘Red’—the name of the color—and there are fifty people listening, it can be expected that there will be fifty reds in their minds. And one can be sure that all these reds will be very different.”
Opened as of July 20, the Nassau County Museum of Art is welcoming visitors to Seeing Red: Renoir to Warhol; an exhibition that will explore the meanings, connotations, and associations of this powerful color in art.
The exhibition features over 100 works by more than 70 artists, both established and emerging, ranging from the classical to the contemporary, in addition to Renoir and Warhol. Artists include Alexander Calder, Marc Chagall, Salvador Dalí, Willem de Kooning, Salvatore Ferragamo, Paul Georges, Adolph Gottlieb, David Hockney, Robert Indiana, William King, Jeff Koons, Fernand Léger, Judith Lieber, Joan Miró, Robert Motherwell, Frank Olt, Jackson Pollock, Robert Rauschenberg, Ad Reinhardt, Paul Resika, Mark Rothko, Gilbert Stuart, and Vivienne Westwood, among others.
“American portraitists such as Gilbert Stuart imbued red in their stately paintings of prominent individuals to conjure authority,” explains a statement released by the museum on the exhibit. “Robert Motherwell, Ad Reinhardt, and other major abstract painters displayed a deep fascination with red in their commanding compositions that evoked a sense of chromatic power. Alexander Calder prominently employed red in his two-dimensional works and in the mobiles for which he is most famous. Andy Warhol frequently used red in his artworks, from his bold and imposing silkscreened portrait of Vladimir Lenin saturated in bright red to his signature Campbell’s Soup Cans.
“Red often represents the human condition in works of art and is used to evoke strong emotions. Its myriad of variations have come to signify authority, love, energy, and beauty. Red warns us of peril and commands us to stop, but it also indicates purity and good fortune. Red boldly represents political movements and religious identities.
“From the advent of our appreciation for this color in antiquity to its continued prominence in artistic and popular culture, this exhibition will span various world cultures through a range of media. Artists today continue to captivate us with their interpretations of red through multiple perspectives.”
The exhibit will remain open through January 5, 2025. Franklin Hill Perrell is serving as Chief Curator, and Alex C. Maccaro is serving as Assistant Curator.
