TATE The Colour Chart Exhibition

I remember going to an exhibition a couple of years ago (Sept 2009) at Liverpool Tate, which involved a variety of artists who used colour in their works. Luckily I wrote a little about it, and the artists I liked at the time of seeing it, so I thought it could be helpful to see who Tate put together in an exhibition, and which artists I could show together.

It was the 'white cube space' common in galleries, and art works which showed different interpretations of 'colour'.

Here are some of the artists that I found particularly interesting (and some of the thoughts I had at the time):

• Jasper Johns - the numbers
• Andy Warhol - Electric Chair - the colour use distances from the morbidity of the chair; colour does not seem to relate.
• Lawrence Weiner - WITH A TOUCH OF PINK WITH A BIT OF VIOLET WITH A HINT OF GREEN I think I found this interesting as it allowed the viewer to see the colours in their mind, without seeing them on the wall. It could be looking at the meaning of colour, how we interpret it...?
• Ellsworth Kelly - giant colour blocks on the wall, using adhesive paper squares. At the time this work didn't interest me that much.
• Edward Ruscha - Stains - "I didn't want it to look like art. I wanted it to look like a stain." I wrote this quote down because at the time, I liked the contrast from the other works which thought carefully about colour whereas Ruscha wasn't too concerned with that; he was interested in the stains. (the fact that they showed this work alongside the others made me think about how quite different works could be shown together to create a successful/interesting exhibition)
• Dan Flavin - this is what I wrote as notes at the time: "The fluorescent tubes cast colour lights on the surrounding walls and as people walked past their shadow changed colour. As I was looking at this piece a couple walked past me and were amazed by the lights and the colours on the walls. It was good to see the affect of art on someone else and not just your own views all the time." At the time of seeing Flavin's work I didn't know much about him and his practice. It was the first time I had seen work like that, and how it had affected the viewer by it's use of colour/light in the space.

From this I'd like to look at works that change the way the gallery space looks, even if it is a white cube space, works that use colour, light, and work within the space create a completely different gallery experience. For me, an exhibition that provides an exciting visual experience would be a great show! I think I want to create a virtual exhibition that lets the viewer escape from reality; an exhibition where the viewer can walk round and be completely focussed on the art work, because it surrounds them.

Hopefully it won't be "gimmicky" or "twee". I always worry it will look like that.