The Jonas Mekas Visual Arts Center presents the blackest of blacks electric art exhibition Two Suns by Saulius Grigoravicius.
Painting in one color, in this case – black, is most probably the highest form of painting. It is meta-painting. Black is not even a color, it’s a lack of color. Malevich’s Black Square ended a painting tradition of a few centuries by recoding a 3D space into a 2D flat deconstruction. Even so, having no illusion as an object for discussion or interpretation, we have an incomprehensible amount of space to interpret dark (lack of light) and light. We invite you to do so at this exhibition.
Moments from World History
1848 – Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx
1859 – The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin
1885 – Studies on Hysteria. Sigmund Freud
Art History
1915 Black Square by Casimir Malevich
1917 Fountain by Marcel Duchamp
Lives of Artists
1957 The Patent Bureau of France patented 63471 – International Klein Blue
2014 The Surrey NanoSystems company in the United Kingdom invented Vantablack – the blackest paint in the world, able to absorb 99.965% of visible light.
2016 Sir Anish Kapoor acquired the exclusive rights to use this paint for his art. It’s understandable that some in the art world were happy that things took such a turn. At the avantgarde of those protesting was the artist and curator Stuart Semple. Taking a dig at Sir Kapoor, he created a pigment, which he named “the rosiest of roses”. Semple allowed anyone and everyone to purchase his paint, except for Sir Kapoor. Everyone purchasing the rose- colored pigment was required to sign this statement: “By putting this product into my cart, I hereby confirm that I am not Anish Kapoor, I am not authorized by Anish Kapoor and am in no way associated with Anish Kapoor. I also give my assurances that this paint will under no circumstances come into the hands of Anish Kapoor.” But, as so often happens, the paint did reach the selfish Sir Kapoor and his Instagram showed a photo with an open can of rose pigment and Sir Kapoor’s rose paint covered middle finger, meant for Semple. Naturally, Semple did not forgive this gesture and began to massively sell “the blackest Semple” acrylic paint. He states that they are even blacker than Vantablack. For your enjoyment and review: the blackest squares in the world against a backdrop of light.
The exhibition is supported by the Lithuanian Council for Culture