Thirteen-time Grammy winner Michael Jackson belted the hit single “Black or White,” which soared to the top of the music charts in 1991 and became the second best selling single of that year.
See if you can recognize the young Home Alone star Macaulay Culkin jammin’ with MJ in the “Black or White” music video below!
While the King of Pop wrote “Black or White” to address racial tension, famous artists utilized the colors black and white — or shades, values, or gradients as per the ongoing “black-and-white color debate” — as defining styles for bodies of work.
Richard Avedon, renowned American fashion and portrait photographer, developed his photos solely in black and white. Avedon photographed acclaimed subjects like The Beatles, Andy Warhol, and Marilyn Monroe.
You may have seen Avedon’s work in the permanent collections of The MoMa or The Met, or at the Richard Avedon exhibition at Chelsea’s Gagosian Gallery. Catch the last day of the Avedon exhibit and head over to Gagosian on your lunch break today!
Marilyn Monroe by Richard Avedon
Dying for a good black and white read? Just wait a month until Chanel designer Karl Lagerfeld and Carine Roitfeld release the highly-anticipated The Little Black Jacket.
In June, Chanel opened a one week Little Black Jacket exhibition featuring over a hundred black and white photographs of the rich and famous adorned by custom Chanel jackets.
Sarah Jessica Parker and Uma Thurman in Chanel jackets
You can read it to believe it on August 25th, when The Little Black Jacket becomes available in all its black and white glory. Sporting pages of Lagerfeld’s and Roitfeld’s reinterpretation of Chanel’s iconic black jacket, The Little Black Jacket also includes black and white photos of jacket-bearing celebrities like Kanye West and Yoko Ono.
The Little Black Jacket by Karl Lagerfeld and Carine Roitfeld
Looking for an excellent restaurant filled with black and white decor?
The work of esteemed American caricaturist Al Hirschfeld covers the walls of Rockefeller Center’s Alfredo of Rome.
Audrey Hepburn portrait by Al Hirschfeld
Hirschfeld’s black and white portraits of celebrities and broadway stars hang at six-by-sixteen feet and invite restaurant goers into an atmosphere filled with authentic Italian cuisine and whimsical black and white art.
Al Hirschfeld caricatures lining the walls of NYC’s Alfredo of Rome
[Editor's Note: Have you read our entire Color Commentary series? Please check out Red and Blue and stay tuned for more colors to come...Only at The Bare Square!]
- Ava Cotlowitz
