Something big and warm has been shining in the sky for quite a while now. Since it seems it is going to leave us soon, let’s celebrate it with another colour!

May 13: YELLOW

Wall Chandelier - Diango Hernández @Galerie Barbara Thumm

I admit it, I am kind of a meteoropathic, that yellow burning sphere up there makes me feel way better when it is not covered with cloud. The feel of the sun on the skin is probably one of my favourite sensations, especially after a long, cold winter.

But my decisions about the weeks' colours aren’t only dictated by weather or my current hair dye; who doesn’t think about the yellow trains of the U-Bahn as one of the most iconic things in Berlin? And I happen to live near a station covered in yellow tiles, I am like in that Coldplay song every time I step on the platform!

Talking about art, this week two exhibitions containing a high percentage of yellow struck me in a particular way.

One is “Bounty” by Mike Bouchet at Peres Projects. The show investigates contemporary society consumerism through two series of Bouchet’s works: “Bounty”, a body of disturbing big canvases that goes straight to the point, being based on photographs of trash, painted beautifully as a 17th century Dutch still life; and “Kelgon”, glass reproductions of coloured oversized cola bottles, looking more cheerful, but still perfectly conveying the message of the overall exhibition.

“The invisible enemy should not exist” at Barbara Wien is the second, thanks to Micheal Rakowitz artworks created as a response to Baghdad’s Museum pillage.

SIlberstern - Ernst Wilhelm Nay @Aurel Scheibler Berlin

Few random facts about the colour yellow:

-It was John D. Hertz who found the first Yellow Cab Company in 1915
-In the Middle Ages it was the colour of Judas Iscariot (Jesus’s traitor) and it was so associated with envy and jealousy
-Bananas are normally green, when ripped the chlorophyll supply ends and the yellow of the carotenoids replaces the green
-Yellow was one of the first colour used in cave art; it can be seen in Lascaux cave dating back to 17.300 years ago
-It is the most common colour of flowers as it make them visible to insects which need to impollinate

Famous artworks with yellow as predominant colour:

-Sunflowers, Vincent van Gogh, 1888
-Dustheads, Jean Michel Basquiat, 1982
-Balloon Flower (Yellow), Jeff Koons, 1995-2000
-Chiquita Banana, Mel Ramos, 2007
-In Infinity @ Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark, Yayoi Kusama, 2015

The invisible enemy should not exist - Michael Rkowitz @Barbara Wien gallery & bookshop