Sotheby's Aspen is pleased to present Snowfall: Surface and Seeing, an assemblage of works showcasing the vast spectrum of the use of white across decades and mediums. The incandescent expanse of white pigment presents artists with limitless opportunities for exploration: from sublime stillness to punctuated swathes of impasto, texture articulates the means and methodologies of creation. Simultaneously meditative and fascinatingly complex, the manipulation of varying shades of white articulates a devotion to mark-making and the reflection and scattering of all visible wavelengths of light into a field of texture whose range is ethereal, dynamic, and imposing.
Robert Ryman's monochrome palette of white paint allows him to fully explore its varied possibilities and properties: color, texture, density, light, and reflectivity. Far from taking a blank, nihilistic stance, Ryman used colorlessness as a beginning: white was his basis for a career-long, nuanced exploration of painting's underlying structures and conventions of meaning. The dramatic interplay of light and shadow created through varied, painterly application creates a complex range of constantly shifting forces across the canvas and casts a unique visual narrative.
A departure from the traditional canvas, Dan Flavin's signature fluorescent configurations draw attention to not only the installations themselves, but also the environments they inhabit. Exemplified in Untitled (To Rainer) 2, executed in 1987, white is awakened in the form of a warm, fluorescent light. A leading figure of Minimalism, Flavin champions the symbiotic relationship of light and color, particularly the chromatic range of white fluorescence, through the lens of geometric abstraction.
In Aspen, white is the color of the winter. Harmonizing with the surrounding snow lined mountains and cool, crisp air, we will present a stimulating exhibition showcasing various artists' usage of white against the context of the winter landscape. Opening December 17th, this exhibition will reinvigorate the dynamic relationship between color and texture to reflect Aspen winter at its finest.
Location:
534 East Cooper Avenue, Aspen, Colorado 81611
Hours:
Tuesday–Saturday | 11am–5pm
Sunday | 12pm–5pm
