The classic black and white combination never goes out of fashion. It looks good everywhere and on everybody. Black and white encompass the entire palette -- they are the most general and generous colors, "the first" colors. Maybe for that reason, they are also very eloquent while being succinct. Decorating an entire room with only white immediately reveals and ascetic intent; a completely black room -- though hard to imagine -- conceals a threat and a dark secret. To get the most out of the two you need to mix them up -- it's amazing how many emotions they can convey and how clearly they do it.

The most obvious option is to paint the walls white and to offset them with black furniture. This boring decor choice once represented venerable minimalism in design, but today it tells more about minimalism in creativity. I do believe that white walls and black furniture can still work together -- only when the walls are not rectangular, and the sofas and the armchairs are also of unconventional shape. But most apartments lack such flourishes. Wall art, on the other hand, contains them all, and more.

Black and white artwork by these three artists encapsulates sophistication, simplicity and elegance, the traits most associated with the discussed colors:

Jackson Pollock

Pollock was a genius of movement and change. His paintings race, run, stumble, fall; they grow, expand, dominate and even terrorize. He is the messiest of the three, and he is outright messy. His paintings demonstrate what an energetic artist and man he was by themselves being sources of energy. As opposed to his colored works, the black and white pieces retain something very elemental and powerful -- the splashes, the dots and the lines perform an intriguing dance that is both austere and sensuous. These paintings speak of will power and can serve as secret replenishment amulets. They are mojo regenerators!

Picasso introduces passion that's on the brink of sentimentality -- or generosity -- depending on your own temperament. The drawings capture danger and excitement that would be difficult to candidly summarize with colors. I think Picasso tried to be brief not for the sake of brevity, but because he had no choice: the themes are so emotional and tense that having too much color would have turned the artistic conception into a parody. These works of art are an exercise in restraint, and Picasso is not different from Pollock in that he operates with will power to achieve his goal. But these are more focused, sharp pieces that suit more for a smaller room, or a quiet corner.

After the above mentioned masters of motion, Malevich's monumental simplicity comes as a relief. However, few would dare to hang these classics in their apartment. Because, after all, everyone can paint THAT. And how pretentious do you have to be to hang a black square on your wall? Abstract art encounters protest and ridicule today as much as it did back in the day. That's what makes Malevich a good "underdog" choice -- a clever way to understate yourself. Underneath is a history of tradition and the willingness to break away from tradition -- to take risks in a larger than life fashion.