If you are considering how something in art is portrayed in black and white changes how you interpret the colors you see. Black and white could be regarded as the most colorful influence in the world since it contains all colors and, at the same time, excludes all colors.

Black is the absence of light. Unlike white and other hues, pure black can exist in nature without any light.

Some consider white to be a color because white light comprises all hues on the visible light spectrum. ... But in a technical sense, black and white are not colors; they’re shades. Something is often presented in black and white to make a symbolic reference or inference to something that might only exist in the mind. The possibilities are endless as to what the original thoughts’ colors might be.