Untitled (white – black)

The work takes the form of a rectangular board, close to a square, divided by black lines into six equal fields arranged in two columns and three rows. The fields are filled alternately with white or black backgrounds. The first field is white and the last black, both without text. The remaining four fields contain the words białe (“white”) or czarne (“black”) in a sans-serif typeface. In the fields with a white background, the text is black; in the fields with a black background, it is white. The work is based on the principle of mathematical combination and tautology. The concept implies the existence of the word “white” written in white letters on a pure white field and the word “black” written in black letters on a black field. It may also indicate the difference between a material object itself and its inevitably imperfect verbal description, which must rely on the principle of colour opposition. The work has been presented in many versions: as a hand-painted ink board on Bristol board, as a photographic print and as prints on paper mounted on rigid supports, including aluminium (Dibond).