Colour Field

Southern Guild presents Colour Field, a group show inspired by the work of the abstract expressionist painters of the 1950s and 1960s, including Mark Rothko, Barnett Newman, Helen Frankenthaler, Kenneth Noland and Frank Stella. Their paintings feature large planes of solid, flat colour that envelop the viewer, abandoning form and figuration to evoke pure emotion. For the first time in abstract painting, figure and ground became one, with the space of the picture – conceived as a “field” – seeming to spread out beyond the edges of the canvas.

This group exhibition will premiere bold new work by designers such as Tonic, Zizipho Poswa, Xavier Clarisse and Ronel Jordaan, whose approach to colour is immersive and transformative. Working in a wide variety of materials – including glass, aluminium, wood, clay, fabric and leather – the designers explore the interplay of colour and light, colour and texture and colour and materiality within contemporary furniture, lighting, ceramics and textiles.

Colour Field will include some relative newcomers to South African collectible design, such as fashion designer and weaver Nicholas Coutts, industrial designer August de Wet and jewellery designer Eric Loubser.