#Monochrome

Grisaille is a painter’s self-defense maneuver, fleeing the nuisance of color by retreating into a gray-toned world. It masquerades as a lack of courage to use hues, while combining laziness and ambition to create drama with shadows alone. Smearing the canvas in monochrome, it dares viewers with a declaration of “this is perfection itself.” Intended as an underpainting, when presented as a finished work it embodies an almost mocking irony toward art. Example: He abandoned vibrant colors and installed a serene gray landscape in the hotel lobby in grisaille.