Black & White: Beyond the Color Spectrum

Art

In an Op-to-Pop world, there's still nothing as powerful as the stark contrast and meaningful duality of black and white.

"Even with the advent of color printed pages, black/white remains the color of news, in all its quotidian sobriety.... The bad guys in cowboy movies wear black hats, but the Ku Klux Klan prefer white hoods to symbolize their brotherhood." These are the observations of Steven Guarnaccia, art director for the New York Times, from his new book with designer Susan Hochbaum, Black & White (Chronicle Books). Guarnaccia and Hochbaum's text so intrigued Design Center director and curator Hilary Jay that the trio united for an exhibit of bleak polar opposites and gray areas. Floating Crazy 8 balls, X-rays, eye charts, pistol range charts, scuffed film clips and old photos, glistening christening gowns, convict suits and kitsch tacky totems will line the Design Center's walls. In 1927, states the show's manifesto, Vogue proclaimed that "the smartest clothes for spring and summer are å white or all black.'"

Same as it ever was.

Opening reception Thu., May 2, 5:30–8 p.m., free, Design Center at Philadelphia University, 4200 Henry Ave., 215-951-2860; book signing with Steven Guarnaccia and Susan Hochbaum, Sat., May 4, 3–5 p.m., Trust, 13th and Sansom sts. Proceeds benefit The Design Center at Philadelphia University.

—A.D. Amorosi

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