Viva Magenta: the color of 2023

Viva Magenta: the color of 2023

Olimpia Gaia Martinelli | Jan 1, 2023 9 minutes read 0 comments
 

it is important to refer to the statements made by Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute, who justifies the choice of Viva Magenta 18-1750, as the color of 2023, because, this hue, rooted in nature, since it is descended from the red family, turns out to be extremely vigorous, vital, expressive, courageous, exuberant, joyful, optimistic and rebellious, that is, capable of encouraging experimentation, inclusion and unrestrained self-expression...

Laura Ruffinelli, Chromatic series, Magenta No. 2, 2019. Acrylic / gouache / tape / thread / fabric on paper, 70 x 50 cm.


Magenta: from Fattori to the origins of color

We are confronted with the oil on canvas, which, titled The Magenta Battle, dated 1862 and created by the Tuscan Giovanni Fattori, the greatest exponent of Macchiaioli painting, is aimed at immortalizing, in the upper part of its support, a sky almost clear of clouds, while the lower half of the pictorial surface, is enriched by the presence of the infantrymen, horsemen, corpses and the wagon of the rescuing nuns, all subjects immersed in a rather bare rural landscape, in which the presence of a few "young" and thin trees stands out. Precisely in such a context, the turmoil that marks the faces of the human figure is repeated in the tormented nature, marked by the presence of some broken branches, which, despite their shattering, manage, when they tend to reach upward, like the green tree tops, to unite the human drama with the more peaceful heavenly atmosphere. From an art-historical point of view, on the other hand, the above composition is noteworthy in that, in addition to being executed through a traditional painting technique, in which the first hints of "macchia" emerge, it is also the first painting to document an event in the history of the newly formed Italian nation: The Battle of Magenta. Having reached this point, you may wonder: what does the aforementioned war conflict have to do with the color magenta, the shade chosen by Pantone as the symbol of 2023? Actually, the reddish-pink shade patented in France in 1859 and later, that is, a year later, in Great Britain by Simpson, Maule & Nicholson, was initially called by the latter solferino, an appellation that was soon changed to magenta, since, at the time, this name was extremely popular throughout Europe, precisely because of the bloody episode mentioned above from the Tuscan masterpiece.

Stanko, Farbfeld rot (Magenta) in gelb orange, 2022.  Oil / acrylic on linen canvas, 100 x 100 cm.

Magenta: the color of the year narrated by Nickolas Muray, Arthur Dove, Mark-Rothko and Richard Anuszkiewicz 

Abandoning the art-historical context for a brief moment, it is important to refer to the statements made by Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute, who justifies the choice of Viva Magenta 18-1750, as the color of 2023, because, this hue, rooted in nature, since it is descended from the red family, turns out to be extremely vigorous, vital, expressive, courageous, exuberant, joyful, optimistic and rebellious, that is, capable of encouraging experimentation, inclusion and unrestrained self-expression. These sentiments are just what we needed, now that, having partly overcome the Covid-19 pandemic, we are able to take our lives back into our own hands, being even more aware of the fact, that no minute of our precious existence span, should be wasted. In addition, there is a further reason, which, again related to the aforementioned epidemic, made Pantone's experts agree to the choice of magenta, a shade inspired by the colors of the cochineal beetle, which, so rich and saturated as to seem totally artificial, seems to allude to the current fusion of the real world and technology, encouraged precisely by the isolation of Covid-19. It follows, that there is no more current color than the Viva Magenta 18-1750 promoted by the aforementioned institution, universally recognized as the most authoritative source of color information via seasonal forecasts. At this point, having unveiled the motivations behind the promotion of such a hue, we can try and recognize its nuances present within some of the best-known masterpieces of photography and painting, such as, for example, Frida Kahlo with Magenta Rebozo by Nickolas Muray, Magenta by Arthur Dove, Magenta, Black, Green on Orange by Mark Rothko and Deep Magenta Square by Richard Anuszkiewicz. Speaking of Frida Kahlo with Magenta Rebozo, precisely the photos aimed at immortalizing the eponymous star of Mexican figurative investigation, Frida Kahlo, represent the best-known subject investigated by the lens of Muray, who, in addition to having been her portraitist, was also her friend and lover. In the aforementioned shot in particular, dated 1938-39 and taken during a winter stay in New York by Kahlo, the color magenta is clearly visible in the rebozo worn by the artist, a typical shawl of Mexican women's clothing, to which Frida herself alludes in her thanks to Muray for the beautiful shot depicting her: "Dear Nick, I got my beautiful image you send me, I find it even more beautiful than in New York. Diego says it is as wonderful as those of Piero della Francesca. To me it is more than that, it is a treasure, and, besides, it will always be a memory of when we went to his studio to take pictures. This was one of them. And now I have it next to me. You will always be inside the magenta rebozo." Pretending to take a microscope and analyze the mantle of the aforementioned magenta fabric, we can instead imagine glimpsing something akin to the abstract vision, executed, in the same chromatic hue, by Arthur Dove, an American artist born in 1880, known precisely for using a wide range of sometimes unconventional means of expression employed in order to produce images detached from the real world. Closer to the "classical" perception of things turn out to be the "inaccurate" geometric shapes of Rothko, who in Magenta, Black, Green on Orange, investigated the color 2023, binding it to a thin rectangle, placed in the upper end of the canvas dated 1949, a work in which magenta demonstrates all its adaptability, gracefully juxtaposing with mutually lighter and darker colors. Finally, this point of view seems to culminate in the precise "square perimeter," executed in the aforementioned red-pink hue, that Richard Joseph Anuszkiewicz placed in the center of the pictorial support in Deep Magenta Square, a masterpiece aimed at synthesizing all his interest in the optical changes taking place when different high-intensity colors are applied to the same geometric configurations, an aspect that made him one of the most prolific exponents of Op art.

Margarita Ivanova, Magenta, 2022. Oil on canvas, 50 x 40 cm.

Margarita Ivanova: Magenta

The interpretation of the shades of the color magenta becomes, in Ivanova's painting of the same name, celebrating the symbolic potential of this hue, revealed above by Pantone's experts, an opportunity to juxtapose this vital nuance with a more composed black and white, intended to take shape in the half-covered face of the work's protagonist. In fact, what contours the skin of her hair up to below eye level is a reddish expanse, taking shape in the features of a high-necked mallet, whose unclear boundaries, make it feel as improbably extended to the entire background of the medium. This view of the world, perceived predominantly in a "monochromatic" form, is justified by the revelations of Ivanova herself, who, without mincing words, clarifies how her pictorial intent was precisely to make the most of the wild, strong and original character of magenta, giving it as much space as possible on the canvas. In the history of art, however, two other artists have made their art bear specific meanings through, if not "monochromes," the image of semi- or totally covered faces, such as, the more contemporary Ewa Juszkiewicz and the "classic" René Magritte. In fact, if in the former case the painter "conceals" her portraits in order to "rebel" against the canons of female aesthetics handed down by the Western artistic tradition, the latter "hides," both to allude to the traumatic vision of the mother's death, and to make explicit reference to her unabashed passion for detective novels, generating works having the form of a kind of "enigmas."

Susana Ribeiro, Magenta. Acrylic on canvas, 130 x 100 cm. 

Susana Ribeiro: Magenta

In an unprecedented magenta context appears to our sight, almost as a kind of unexpected surprise, one of the most recurrent images of Western figurative investigation: a naked woman intent on bathing. In fact, this vision, having an art history textbook at hand, is possible to be found in the work of great masters, among them, the unforgettable Paul Cézanne, Titian, Edgar Degas, Guercino, Georges Seurat, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, etc. Trying, however, to associate the work of the Artmajeur artist with a less obvious and more innovative context, it is possible to juxtapose the black and white of Magenta's protagonist with a photograph, taken in the same hues, during the 1950s, by the war photographer David Douglas Duncan, who, for the occasion, did not just immortalize an anonymous model, but the greatest painter of his time: Picasso naked in his bathtub! This shot is due to the fact that Douglas Duncan had the ardor to ring, in 1957, the doorbell of the Spanish master's huge house-workshop, located near Cannes, a place inside which he was welcomed by the artist's wife, Jaqueline Roque at the time, who led him upstairs where Picasso was washing. At this precise moment the photographer took the opportunity to ask permission for the first of many more shots, aimed at portraying the cubist grappling with his more-less-sponsored routine of daily life.

Sumit Mehndiratta, Composition no. 390, 2022. Acrylic on canvas, 76,2 x 124,5 cm. 

Sumit Mehndiratta: Composition no. 390

The sinuous and undulating movement of the thick lines of black and magenta color, painted in acrylics on the canvas, seems to culminate in the single circle, which, arranged in the right boundary of the support, invites us to elaborate regarding the meanings of this geometric figure, extremely present in the world of art, in multiple guises, from the most remote origins of figurative culture. Referring back to the most classical interpretative tradition regarding this geometric figure, the circle can be understood as an extended point symbolizing perfection and homogeneity, indelibly associated with all that is celestial, that is, the sky, the soul, the unlimited and God, so much so that the circular movement is understood as perfect, unchanging, with neither beginning nor end. Bringing back instead a more personal interpretation of the aforementioned geometric form, it is possible to consider the point of view of Wassily Kandinsky, the first artist considered to be the author of abstract works, who saw in the circle a form that, though modest, was capable of asserting itself with overbearingness, a peculiarity due to the ambivalence inherent in its being: halfway between stability and instability, between sonority and silence. Such richness means that the artist found in the circle large possibilities for the expression of his being, which could finally be considered even in its fourth dimension, namely, the temporal one. An example of the use of such a form within the Russian master's artistic investigation is the work Squares with Concentric Circles, watercolor, gouache and pastel on paper, aimed at describing the perceptual effects of the interaction of colors and their sensory qualities, which are realized in the repeated form of the circle.

 

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