Talk

'The Color Black' with Mohsen Mostafavi and Peter Märkli

Thursday 6 February 2025 6.30 - 8pm

The Benjamin West Lecture Theatre | Burlington Gardens & digital livestream

£15 / £9 in person, £8 / £5 online

Priority booking opens to RA Supporters and House Members on 19 November. Booking opens to Bar & Garden Members and Friends of the RA on 20 November and to the public on 21 November.

Friends of the RA book first

Join now

Is black a colour, or simply the absence of light? Join Mohsen Mostafavi and Peter Märkli to explore the colour black in the context of art and architecture.

In Mostafavi's recent publication with MACK, he unpacks the importance of the colour black for thinking about architecture. Contextualising this exploration within art history, the book presents an array of visual material, alongside Marxist German art historian Max Raphael's essay: 'The Color Black: On the Material Constitution of Form'.

After a brief lecture, Mostafavi will be in conversation with influential Swiss architect and founder of Studio Märkli, Peter Märkli, whose musings on colour and architecture form a key part of the book's narrative.

Mohsen Mostafavi is the Alexander and Victoria Wiley Professor of Design and Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor; he served as Dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Design from 2008-2019.

Peter Märkli established his own studio in 1978. From 2002–2015 he had a Professorship in architecture at the ETH in Zurich. Since 2013, he has been a visiting professor at the Moscow School of Architecture. Among his most notable works is 'La Congiunta', a small Swiss gallery housing sculptures by Hans Josephsohn.

£15 / £9 in person, £8 / £5 online

Priority booking opens to RA Supporters and House Members on 19 November. Booking opens to Bar & Garden Members and Friends of the RA on 20 November and to the public on 21 November.

Friends of the RA book first

Join now