Who's Afraid of Red, Yellow, and Blue?

Who's Afraid of Red, Yellow, and Blue?
Curated by Ellen Hackl Fagan, Founder and Director, ODETTA Gallery

Conversations between artists have always been a healthy antithesis to the pervasive myth that art is made in a solitary environment. In New York City, these conversations are promoted in robust arts communities that telegraph ultimately throughout a global art world.

In 1966 Barnett Newman began a series of monumental paintings titled “Who’s Afraid of Red, Yellow, and Blue?” In his response to Ab Ex painting, he chose to strip painting of any need for narrative, and instead, allowed color to be the sole subject of these works. The ginormous scale of this series drove the point home further, enveloping the viewer in Red, Yellow, and Blue, one by one. This step into Minimalist Abstraction was so radical that it caused several very public assaults against these works over the latter half of the 20th century. In addition to infuriating some, it inspired many other artists. His works propelled Conceptualism into becoming the next wave of contemporary art, lasting and influencing generations of artists. The most sublime response to the question “ Who’s Afraid of Red, Yellow, and Blue?,” for this curator, was Robert Irwin's piece, “Whose Afraid of Red, Yellow, and Blue?”, created in 2006, shown at Pace Gallery in Chelsea. Irwin surrounded us in ever larger panels of reflective red, yellow, and blue, and installed them on the floor and suspended them from the ceiling, offering the viewer an immersive experience in both primary colors and the full color spectrum due to the reflective nature of the panels.

The question is, are you afraid of Red, Yellow, and Blue? Whether you stay clear of these colors in your artwork or whether you embrace them, for this exhibition we'd love a variety of fearless approaches (all mediums welcome) to this challenge, thus continuing the advancement of a new century of contemporary art.