Color Chart: Reinventing Color, 1950 to Today

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Sherrie Levine
American, born 1947
Salubra #4
2007

Sherrie Levine. Salubra #4. 2007

American, born 1947 Oil on mahogany. 14 parts. Each: 27 x 24" (68.6 x 61 cm). Private Collection. © 2008 Sherrie Levine Audio courtesy of Acoustiguide

Curator, Ann Temkin: Sherrie Levine is one of the artists who emerged in the 1970s calling into question the ideas of originality that seem to have characterized modern art. Many artists of Levine's generation see the idea of originality as a fiction, as something which was never true.

The set of paintings that you see here take their colors from a color chart that the architect Le Corbusier produced for a wallpaper company in Switzerland in 1931. Le Corbusier's own inspiration for his color charts came from his study of paintings made over the course of centuries. Levine takes that color chart inspired by paintings and returns it to the state of paintings.

Each set of 14 paintings was conceived as an installation, and the wall behind them must be painted to match a background color that LeCorbusier used on his color cards. Remaking Corbusier's palette in her paintings was relatively straightforward, because in fact a Swiss company has recently begun to produce interior house paints in LeCorbusier's colors.

Like all of Levine's monochromes, these are painted by a conservator on mahogany panels. Levine's choice to have a conservator paint these was based on her simple assessment that he would do a better job than she would. For Levine, as for so many artists today, there is no need for a direct connection between the hand of the artist and the work of art.

Critics' discussions of Levine seem usually to center on the conceptual impact of her work. Works such as Salubra reveal that she is at heart a colorist and someone who is very invested in beauty as an aspect of visual art.