«Yes, I can paint that too,» I want to say, looking at Malevich’s «Black Square» or another painting that looks simple but has brought its author a ton of money.
Well, it's never too late to grab a little paint, splash it on a canvas, and try to sell your creation for a profit. And to motivate you to take the plunge, we present the top 10 most expensive single-color paintings in the world.
Some of these masterpieces of painting have not been exhibited at auction, and their value can only be estimated.
10. Shiraze Khushyari, "The Veil"«
Price: 60 thousand dollars.
In 1999, Iranian artist Shirazeh Khushiari painted a canvas that appears to be simply an unevenly painted black square. Shirazeh herself believes it is a self-portrait.
The artist painted Sufi phrases in Arabic on a black painted canvas. However, they can only be seen from very close range. Critics consider her work a cross between painting and graphic art.
9. Lee Yuan Chia, "Monochrome White Painting"«
The possible cost of the work is 100 thousand dollars.
It consists of a white canvas with four small cardboard circles placed on it, just below and to the left of the center. Two large circles are on the left, while two smaller circles are located closer to the center.
The circles are covered in the same white paint as the rest of the painting. Chia described these circles as "cosmic dots," a motif he developed in the early 1960s and which remained central to his subsequent practice.
The asymmetrical placement of the "space dots" in the painting gives it an element of randomness, which is contradicted by the severity and simplicity of the canvas as a whole.
8. Allan McCollum, "Surrogate Pictures"«
Sold for 125 thousand euros
Although the works of this contemporary American artist appear to be framed paintings, they are actually painted plaster casts. No two "Surrogate Paintings" are alike. Although they are mass-produced, each cast is hand-painted.
According to the author, such pseudo-paintings should help bridge the gap between art and automation.
7. Gerhard Richter, "Blood-Red Mirror"«
The cost of the painting is 1.1 million dollars.
German artist Gerhard Richter's paintings range from detailed, almost photorealistic portraits to monochromatic paintings. He even designed a stained-glass window for Cologne Cathedral, formed from randomly arranged squares of multicolored glass.
One of the artist's most famous works, "Blood-Red Mirror," is indeed a mirror painted red. It sold in 2009 for $1.1 million. What does the buyer expect to see in such a mirror?
6. Ad Reinhardt, "Abstract Painting"«
Estimated price: from 2 million dollars.
The New York artist was a proponent of Abstract Expressionism—the subconscious application of color and form—in his youth. His early works incorporated geometric shapes and other traditional techniques.
However, after the 1940s, Reinhardt began creating paintings composed entirely of a single color. In the last ten years of his life, he created only a series of square canvases painted entirely in black.
At first glance, they may seem completely featureless. But there are subtle differences between each painting, which can take hours, even days, to discover.
When these Reinhardt creations were first shown at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, one visitor canceled his membership in protest.
5. Yves Klein, "Untitled Blue Monochrome"«
The probable price is 3-4 million dollars.
If you want to see what the "mood color blue" looks like, take a look at the works of French artist Yves Klein, one of which tops the list of the 5 most expensive monochrome paintings in the world. The dominant color in his work symbolizes the infinity of the universe.
In 1958, the artist presented his exhibition titled "Emptiness" in Paris, having sent out invitations to a huge crowd on blue paper and, of course, in blue envelopes. And the title didn't deceive viewers: inside, empty blue-and-white walls awaited them.
Klein even created a trademark, patenting his own version of the ultramarine pigment recipe under the name "International Klein Blue." Until the artist's death, "International Klein Blue" remained his signature color.
4. Piero Manzoni, "Achrome"«
One of the works from the series was sold at Christie's for $5.2 million.
We've already written about this controversial artist in a collection of the most ordinary things that made their owners fabulously rich. He wasn't shy about selling his feces to art connoisseurs (and they did buy it), signed the bodies of volunteers and issued them certificates of authenticity, handed out boiled eggs with his fingerprints to exhibition visitors, and did many other things that were eccentric at best.
One of Manzoni's projects was "Achrome," a series of monochrome paintings created by immersing canvas in liquid kaolin. The complete absence of color was intended to focus the viewer's attention on the material qualities of the object. Wrinkles and folds were created during the process of preparing and drying the canvas, and were not touched by the artist's hand.
Toward the end of the series, Manzoni abandoned canvas and began using cotton, acrylic resins, fiberglass, and other materials. He also began tinting his works with pigments that change color over time.
3. Brice Marden, "Dylan painting"«
Could cost around $10 million.
This painting was named after Bob Dylan, a friend of Marden's. The artist created it to boost the singer's career. However, by the time the work was completed, Dylan, the future Nobel Prize winner in Literature, was already more famous than Marden.
The canvas was coated with a mixture of turpentine and beeswax, to which gray paint was added. The artist then used a spatula to smooth the surface. A strip of unpainted canvas remained at the bottom of the painting.
2. Kazimir Malevich, "Black Square"«
Sotheby's auction values the painting at $20 million.
Perhaps the most famous monochrome painting in the world, aptly nicknamed "Negroes in a Black Room Stealing Coal," it is one of the Suprematist works by avant-garde artist Kazimir Malevich, in which he explored the fundamental possibilities of color and composition.
While Reinhardt filled his entire canvas with black paint, Malevich simply painted a black square in the center of his. This work became part of a triptych that also included "Black Circle" and "Black Cross.".
Although the painting was once pristine black, age has left its mark in the form of numerous cracks on the surface.
1. Robert Rauschenberg, "White Series of Paintings"«
Rauschenberg's paintings are worth up to $89 million.
The five paintings in this series are sets of one, two, three, four, or seven identical white canvases hung together. When they were first exhibited, they looked like a cheap gimmick, but now Rauschenberg's white paintings can be found in galleries around the world.
Rauschenberg was a friend of composer John Cage, who wrote a piece called "4'33." During its performance, a pianist or other instrumentalist must sit silently for 4 minutes and 33 seconds. As a result, the audience hears only the sounds of the surrounding environment. Perhaps this is the perfect accompaniment to these paintings.