With David Batchelor as artist in residence for year 2026, we explore the theory of color and its interpretation by the Western society. We hope Mandranova could represent the opportunity to put David’s research at work into a distinctive rural setting and to foster the positive exchange between the artist, the farm and the local environment.
PAINTINGS
Batchelor began working on paintings on panels when he was writing a new book on colour. Both are titled Chromocopia and are a meditation on the abundance of colour in the world and in our imaginations.
Chromocopia is a continuation of the project that became public with the publication in 2000 of Chromophobia. In this book, Batchelor argued that, in the West, since antiquity, philosophers and artists have treated colour as foreign, unstable and untrustworthy – a force to be contained, diminished, and excluded from the higher values of Mind and Reason.
CONCRETOS
“Concretos” are a group of sculptures that employ discarded materials found on and around the farm. Each metal element is carefully embedded in a concrete base, a support that isolates and honours this bit of industrial debris. These works are a continuation of long series of works Batchelor has been making since the early 2010s. Many works from this series use brightly coloured elements – plastics, glass, painted objects – that are offset by the pale grey concrete base. The sculptures are part of Batchelor’s thirty-year exploration of mostly urban and industrial colour.
