Author Description

<p>With twenty-one international contemporary artists, "Back to Black" examines the significance of black in recent painting. Black as a color in its own right only came into acceptance again in the twentieth century amongst artists such as Matisse and, later, Rauschenberg, Rothko, and Stella.<p>Black has been a challenge to painters of all eras--and not only because of its symbolism. Black is the absence of color. Even perceiving it is difficult, because it is hard to see the contrast between different nuances, and light reflecting off it tends to make it look shiny, even white.