THE PINK EDITION

The perception and meaning of pink have changed over the years, going from one extreme to the other and have been present in both high and low culture.
From renaissance portraits to the pop art movement artists have used this contradicting color to add meaning and express feelings.

Nowadays pink is seen as a girl's color, but until the early 20th century this wasn’t the case. Red was considered the color for adult males and pink, or "the little red", for boys. Blue was the feminine color and light blue for girls. If you look at historical paintings of Jesus and Mary for instance, Mary usually wears blue and Jesus wears pink. Around 1920, blue was increasingly associated with naval uniforms. Also factory workers at that time almost all wore blue. With this change, blue became the boys' color, while girls adopted the sweeter and more sensitive light pink.

Pink has also been used for calming effects, like in the beginning 1980’s where some prisons were painted pink hoping to influence the male prisoners.
The color has been also used to provoke, for example by punk bands like the Ramones and The Clash.
Only a few weeks ago the fashion-conscious Italian police had a strong reaction to the color pink after receiving batches of pink face masks to wear on duty, arguing that the 'eccentric' color is ill-matched with their uniforms and refused to wear these 'inappropriate' masks.

We can conclude that in either art, fashion or even interior design, pink has always been particularly controversial with a loaded history.

Curious on how our other artist use this divisive color?

The Pink Edition is the first exhibition of our color series exhibitions that will be on show from the 12th of February to the 19th of March.
With works of Yigal Ozeri, Dimitar Genchev, Johan de Wit, Sebastian Hosu, Zsofia Schweger, Timo Grimm, Theun Govers, Matthias Schaareman, guest artist Myles Benett and introducing artist Dirk Hardy.
This show promises a surprising insight in how artists use different media and take color as their starting point. You will see a leading role for pink in paintings, three-dimensional objects, work on paper, photography and textile art.

The opening of THE PINK EDITION will take place on the 19th of February, from 16.00 - 18.00. We hope to see you then!