The Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp together with the University of Antwerp, in a joint venture with ISC-Interior Design have organized an International Conference .
Colour is often an essential aspect of art, interior architecture and architecture. It can for instance contribute to a particular meaning for the artist, it can articulate architectural elements in buildings – or eliminate the contours of a space. In short, colour can be an important means for artists and designers. Not accidently is the colour chart an indispensable tool for interior architects.
However, the attention to the use of colour in architecture has in recent decades decreased. This was once different. Modernist architects employed colour very consciously. Colour was applied in several ways, ranging from the primary colour palette of De Stijl to saturated colours applied by Le Corbusier. Also the use of colour within the visual arts was remarkable during modernism. The aim of Living in Colour is to increase an awareness of the qualities and properties of colours. This is done both through an exhibition that focuses on colour as common ground in the interaction between post-war art and interior architecture, as well as workshops and a conference on the use of colour in modernist architecture and interior architecture.
International conference and workshops
The three-day program of Living in Colour consists of two workshops followed by the conference presenting in-depth studies which will elaborate on the aforementioned topics. The closing event will be the opening ceremony of the exhibition Living in Colour. Common Ground between Visual Arts and Interior Architecture (December 5 – 21, 2019) – organized by the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp and the Faculty of Design Sciences, University of Antwerp – presenting twelve ‘encounters’ between visual arts and interior architecture, supplemented with a visiting tour in Antwerp. The encounters illustrate the interactions between both disciplines through colour, based on the relationships between space, objects, furniture, art works, etc. A number of original iconographic material from archives, museums and private collections, as well as furniture objects, will be displayed here for the first time.
Exhibition Living in colour
The exhibition Living in Colour. A Common Ground Between Visual Arts and Interior Architecture displays a series of interdisciplinary encounters between the visual arts and interior architecture. It pays a particular attention to the activities in Antwerp, the educations at the Royal Antwerp Academy of Fine Arts and the education of interior architecture at the National Higher Institute for Architecture and Urbanism in the period 1956 till 1979. Despite their institutional separation in 1946, both educations continued to share educators and interests. Notions of rhythm, light, materiality and colour were common grounds. Colour was – and is – an important aspect that specifically connects both disciplines. It plays therefore a chief role in this exhibition.
Dwelling and home cultures were central themes in post-war discourses on domestic interior architecture. For this reason Living in Colour focuses on domestic interiors and interior objects and exhibits work designed by artists, architects, interior architects and designers, often also teachers, such as Jozef Peeters, Jul De Roover, Camiel Van Breedam, Renaat Braem, Willy van der Meeren, Elli Kruithof, Raymond Goyvaerts, Leon Steynen, Bataille & Ibens, Jef Verheyen and Pieter De Bruyne. This exhibition presents original, iconographic material and objects from various archives and private collections.
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