The paired words "black and white" express an infinite richness in aesthetic, artistic and symbollic terms.
In illustration, they immediately evoke engraving and the paired concepts dropout/relief, in photography negative/positive, in printing ink/paper, as well as empty and full, shadow and light.
The white surface of the paper is empty until a line or a point brings it to life. Then the emptiness becomes white and light in contrast to the black. In drawing, the artist eliminates the light the way a sculptor cuts away the unwanted parts of a block of stone. Emptiness and fullness, like black and white, are ambivalent.
The artist is a demiurge whose hand makes reality emerge from abstraction, organizes the space of a piece of paper and gives it meaning. The line becomes a sign, a form of communication.
--Rejane Bargiel, from RENE GRUAU-- The Art Of Advertising, Le Cherche Midi Editeur, 1999.
