The Memory Of White Exhibit Opens At Leonard Hutton Galleries New Location On Madison Avenue

Sept. 19, 2012 - PRLog -- Leonard Hutton Galleries is pleased to announce its inaugural exhibit at its new 790 Madison Avenue location on the Upper East Side of Manhattan at a special pre-view event to take place Wednesday, October 17th from 6:00 to 8:00 PM in New York. [RSVP]

‘The Memory of White’ propels the galleries into a new direction via acclaimed curator Helene de Franchis of Studio Citta in Verona, Italy. A compendium catalogue by the same title was published to correspond to this exhibit and is available to members of the press in advance.
 
According to de Franchis, “The importance of the color white for contemporary art is something directly linked to the experience of the past. The Baroque, and seventeenth-century European culture in general, had already highlighted the importance of this element. Not just an ideal white, but also the white of architecture as a synonym of light, energy, emptiness and fullness.”

Additionally de Franchis states, “…jump forward to the early twentieth century. Once again there was a recognition and affirmation of white’s values of clarity, simplicity and stillness. Minimalism contaminated all the arts through the ubiquity of this monochrome, ethereal to the point of being surreal. Frank Stella, Agnes Martin, Robert Ryman, Dan Flavin, Carl Andre, Jo Baer, and in many others, each in their own way, used this color to express an artistic epoch, a moment in opposition to the many brash colors of Pop Art. It was a movement that, due to its reduced color palette, did not represent a collapse of art but revealed a new meaning and conceptual dimension.”

The keynote of this group exhibit of white contemporary works is sounded by one of the most significant figures of the twentieth century: Lucio Fontana. It was not by chance that he wrote his White Manifesto just at the point when art was dormant. Here he posits the strength of white energy.

Among the other iconic artists included in ‘The Memory of White’ are Piero Manzoni, Ettore Spalletti, Pierpaolo Calzalari, Giulio Paolini, Fausto Melotti and Luigi Carboni.

As Ettore Spalletti said of his inspiration, “White is the color of dawn; it expresses a sense of complete emptiness that holds a memory of the night, though without yet containing in itself the full light of day.”

Ingrid Hutton founded Leonard Hutton Galleries in New York in 1957 and has been a valuable global resource ever since to both artists and collectors within the contemporary art world.

Photography of individual artwork is available for pre-publication. Interviews may be coordinated in advance via Courtney Lukitsch at Gotham Public Relations; Courtney@GothamPR.com, Tel: 212.352.2147