lecture • Krakow muzeum manggha
7/10
18:30
18:30
7/10
18:30
18:30
黒 black: the colour that changed the world
Is black a colour at all?
In the West it was a sign of extraordinary luxury and power before it became the uniform of mourning. In the nineteenth century, mass demand for black clothing forced production to accelerate, and became one of the conditions for the fashion industry we know today.
In Japan, black is not the absence of light but light at its densest: a colour of constancy, loyalty and victory. It appears in sumi ink, in the deep gloss of urushi lacquer, in the culture of the samurai and in the old practice of ohaguro, the blackening of teeth.
- Why black in Spanish Habsburg portraiture was a display of almost unattainable luxury;
- how Victorian mourning reshaped clothing production, and what that has to do with the emergence of fast fashion;
- why Japanese black can appear to glow from within;
- why Japanese women blackened their teeth;
- how soot became the samurai colour of victory;
- why black stands for constancy and loyalty in Japanese culture, while in the West it became a colour of change, individuality and fashion;
- and why we all wear black today, yet continue to see entirely different things in it.
Tickets
Please note: this event is held in Russian
The lecture is conducted in Russian, without interpretation or subtitles. Keep that in mind before proceeding ti booking.
About the speaker
Alexander Sheremetev is an art historian and researcher specialising in the symbolism, ornament and visual culture of Japan. He has worked with museums for over twenty years, curating private and public collections, developing university courses and advising private projects. He lectures and writes, situating aesthetic form within its historical, philosophical and structural context.
