Hall №3
ALL SHADES… WHITE
Paintings, drawings, sculpture from the collection of the KhRAM
17 December 2020 - 6 March 2021

Every color has a certain effect on a person. Its effect is due, on the one hand, to the direct physiological impact on the body, and, on the other hand, to the associations that colors evoke in accordance with our previous life experience: some of them can excite, while others, on the contrary, calm the nervous system.

White, along with black and gray, belongs to the triad of primary achromatic colors. White is the color of gods, saints, and the righteous. For ancient philosophers, white was the first highly spiritual color. In the Christian tradition, white means kinship with divine light. White is important for almost all world religions. The prominent artist and art theorist Wassily Kandinsky wrote that “white is a symbol of peace, a symbol of birth, where all colors, all material properties and substances have disappeared…”.

White is an indispensable color in art, and in the hands of artists this chameleon is always different. On the canvases of prominent Ukrainian artists from the collection of the KhRAM, it reveals itself in all its richness and diversity. Artistic finds in various techniques, materials, surfaces and textures using white demonstrate its plasticity and the authors’ sincere admiration for this color. Through the prism of white, artists explore its philosophical, spiritual and religious aspects.

According to surveys in Europe and the United States, white is most often associated with impeccability, kindness, honesty, purity, neutrality, accuracy, beginning, and newness. Therefore, the exhibition “All Shades… White”, which concludes the Year of Color (which was celebrated in the museum gallery “apARTment”), is the logical conclusion of the project and, at the same time, symbolizes the beginning of the year that will come soon.

So let it definitely start with a “white streak” and together with KhRAM.