Shades of Gray: Black and White Graphics from RAM’s Collection

Febuary 17 – May 12, 2013
at the Racine Art Museum

Leonard Baskin
Tobias and the Angel, 1958
Wood engraving, 266/300
Racine Art Museum, Gift of Karen Johnson Boyd
Photography: Jon Bolton, Racine

In the winter months of 2013, RAM will feature a series of exhibitions that showcase work dominated by a black and white color scheme. Artists whose works are featured in these exhibitions limit the use of numerous colors, yet create dynamic and thought provoking compositions. Open February 17 through May 12, 2013, Shades of Gray: Black and White Graphics from RAM’s Collection features prints and artist’s books dating from the early twentieth century to the present day. The show includes selections from Wisconsin and New York-based artists working with the federal government’s WPA (Works Progress Administration) arts-based programs during the Great Depression in the 1930s.

Shades of Gray presents landscapes, figural studies, abstractions, and stories told through both image and text. The works in this exhibition rely primarily on a palette of black and white. Narrowing the theme to these “colors,” while allowing for a variety of subject matter from artists, past and present, offers the opportunity to look at both composition and content from a fresh perspective. Viewers are invited to explore formal elements as well as the symbolic and metaphoric potential of color.

RAM has the largest craft collection in the United States, yet it also has a significant number of works on paper and artist’s books. These holdings are historically important as prints and drawings from the WPA were some of the first gifts to the collection in the 1940s. Additionally, collecting and presenting work from artists who create meaningful statements in a number of media underscores RAM’s intention to dispel differentiation between fine arts and craft. The collection has grown in all areas with works on paper comprising approximately half of the museum’s 8,000 pieces

More About the Exhibition

Exhibition Notes (PDF)

Artists in the Exhibition

Mark Adams, Carlos Anderson, Alexander Archipenko, Leonard Baskin, Fred Becker, Frank Boyden, Stefanie Carpenter, Louisa Chase, Paul Clemens, Ralston Crawford, Tara K. Daly, Stuart Davis, Adolph Dehn, Mabel Dwight, Dikko Faust, Lucian Freud, Juan Genoves, Raymond Gloecker, Helen Goran, April Gornik, Susan Gosin, Walter Hamady, Richard Hamilton, Rosella Hartman, Caren Heft, David Hockney, Carl Hoeckner, Mabel Jack, Jacob Kainen, Wayne Kimball, Ronald King, Armin Landeck, Joseph Leboit, Willow Legge, Martin Levine, Louis Lozowick, Thomas Mann, Michael Mazur, Robert McCamant, Ann McGarrell, Tomoharu Murakami, Elizabeth Olds, Richard Olson, JoAnna Poehlmann, Harry R.  Rein, Ron Ruble, Georges Schreiber, Alfred A. Sessler, Moishe Smith, Isaac Soyer, Raphael Soyer, David Stairs, Noboru Takayama, Beth Van Hoesen, Kara Walker, Stow Wengenroth, Art Werger, Wols, Alfredo Ximenez, and Santos Zingale