David Batchelor

The October Colouring-In Book

January 2015 26 x 21 cm, paperback 122 pages, 44 colour ill isbn 978 0 9931563 0 4  

Since its launch in 1976, October has been the single most influential journal of art theory and criticism. Yet in nearly 40 years of publication not a single image has been reproduced in colour. As an extension of his ongoing investigation into colour, Batchelor looks to re-address this balance. Drawn over a copy of issue one of October (Summer, 1976), his abstract compositions disrupt the journal’s orderly monochromatic universe, intervening on every page in riotous, exuberant colour. Circles, triangles and rectangles of brilliant transparent colour and planes of opaque black celebrate colour, placing it above the language of art theory, and back at the centre of artistic practice. Drawing upon Batchelor’s unique visual language and the colours found in the modern city, the works featured in this artist-led publication are reprinted to actual size and collected in full for the first time in this volume. This series of 44 works will form a major part of the Whitechapel Gallery’s current exhibition Adventures of the Black Square: Abstract Art and Society 1915–2015, which runs from January 15th until April 6th, 2015. This book was produced with support from Arts Council England.