Red
Teaching Gallery
If one says "Red" (the name of a color)
and there are 50 people listening,
it can be expected that there will be 50 reds in their minds.
And one can be sure that all these reds will be very different.
—Josef Albers, Interaction of Color, 1963
This Teaching Gallery exhibition explores the use of the color red in a variety of media, including painting, prints, books, and design objects from the eighteenth century to today. In particular, the exhibition focuses on how red in these works mediates our relation to space, time, and both real and imagined places. Combining artworks with quotes from various artists that reflect on the color red, the exhibition examines the links among politics, ideology, and community, and deeply subjective experiences such as memory, fantasy, and the workings of the subconscious. From prints by pop artists Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein, to paintings by Fernand Léger and Gene Davis, to the bright red cover of Mao Zedong's book Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-Tung and Ettore Sottsass's Valentine Portable Typewriter, the exhibition brings artworks of various historical and geographic backgrounds and aesthetic traditions into dialogue with each other through their shared use of red.
Red is curated by Stephen Leet, professor of architecture in the Sam Fox School, in conjunction with the course "Architecture and Film."
Selected works
![2152.tif](https://kemper.qi-cms.com/website/media/w800/permanent_0_4571/2152.tif.jpg)
George Romney
Portrait of the Honorable Francis North, 4th Earl of Guilford
1780![4233C.jpg](https://kemper.qi-cms.com/website/media/w800/permanent_0_4571/4233C.jpg)
Ellsworth Kelly
Red Blue, from the portfolio X + X (Ten Works by Ten Painters)
1964![2012_0011.jpg](https://kemper.qi-cms.com/website/media/w800/permanent_2010_2019/2012_0011.jpg)
Andy Warhol
Rebel Without a Cause (James Dean), from the portfolio Ads
1985![2004_0012_0015.jpg](https://kemper.qi-cms.com/website/media/w800/permanent_2000_2009/2004_0012_0015.jpg)
Roy Lichtenstein
Untitled, from the portfolio The New York Collection for Stockholm
1973![1984_13_29.jpg](https://kemper.qi-cms.com/website/media/w800/permanent_1980_1989/1984_13_29.jpg)
Claes Oldenburg
Striding Figure, from the portfolio Conspiracy: Artist as Witness
1971![2004_0012_0008.jpg](https://kemper.qi-cms.com/website/media/w800/permanent_2000_2009/2004_0012_0008.jpg)
Dan Flavin
Untitled, from the portfolio The New York Collection for Stockholm
1973![4425.tif](https://kemper.qi-cms.com/website/media/w800/permanent_0_4571/4425.tif.jpg)
Gene Davis
Equinox
1965![1999_19_03.jpg](https://kemper.qi-cms.com/website/media/w800/permanent_1990_1999/1999_19_03.jpg)
Anonymous Members of a People’s Commune in Fatshan
Dawn in the East, from the series The East is Red
20th century![1994_07_09.jpg](https://kemper.qi-cms.com/website/media/w800/permanent_1990_1999/1994_07_09.jpg)
Andres Serrano
Red River #10, from the portfolio 10: Artist as Catalyst
c. 1992![4185.tif](https://kemper.qi-cms.com/website/media/w800/permanent_0_4571/4185.tif.jpg)
Fernand Léger
Les belles cyclistes (The Women Cyclists)
1944![1985_10_1.tif](https://kemper.qi-cms.com/website/media/w800/permanent_1980_1989/1985_10_1.tif.jpg)
Marcel Duchamp
Pocket Chess Set
1944![1990_13_1H.jpg](https://kemper.qi-cms.com/website/media/w800/permanent_1990_1999/1990_13_1H.jpg)
Richard Hamilton
A Postal Card for Mother, from S.M.S. No. 1
1968Teaching Gallery
The Teaching Gallery is a space in the Kemper Art Museum dedicated to presenting works from the Museum's collection with direct connections to Washington University courses. Teaching Gallery installations are intended to serve as parallel classrooms and can be used to supplement courses through object-based inquiry, research, and learning. Learn more