Two principles of application from the previous year were continued in 2016. On the one hand, the number of colours chosen remains open. There may be five, six or seven colours. On the other hand, caesurae are now inscribed into the image structure. Only the nature of the caesurae is new. Whereas they previously represented a break in the network structure, from one side of the image to the other as verticals, horizontals or diagonals, so that the network appeared to have been shifted or rotated slightly at the dividing line, this year the continuity of the network structure is retained in every case. The caesura relates solely to the coloration. While in the past the caesurae were continuous breaks from one edge of the image to the other, the new caesurae contain gaps. They are not always visible right across the image, but are interrupted in many works by undivided areas of colour. In this way they are perceived as a line that is hinted at, in some cases only a thought. They consist of isolated colour boundaries that continue precisely in a line, and in the viewer’s perception form a straight line that is partly concrete, partly latent. A further difference, and the principal difference compared with the previous year, relates to the function of the caesurae in the planimetrics of the image. Whereas in the previous year a caesura throughout the image always represented a division into two parts, the new caesurae take a free course on the surface of the image. They no longer necessarily pass right across it, but vary in their course. The new types of image comprise three groups. Firstly there is an individual caesura as before, though no longer from one edge to the other but coming to an end within the image, as if petering out in the perception. Secondly there is a duplication of this disappearing caesura in a parallel arrangement. Thirdly there is an angular formation. Here the caesura always runs parallel to the edge of the image. It turns from a horizontal to a vertical course, or vice versa. Combined angular formations suggest an interior rectangle, an image area within the image. Whenever the distances of the caesurae to the outer edges of the images are equal, a regular frame form is suggested. All of these design principles constitute two planimetric levels in the image. This is, on the one hand, the network structure of the colour figures, and on the other hand the simple, orthogonal division of the area. Each level has its own logic. In their function of carrying the colour they interpenetrate, yet in their discrepancy in the logic of the image, they remain apart. Through these compositional decisions, the image space gains a new degree of complexity.
Acrylic on canvas
85 x 80 cm
Acrylic on canvas
120 x 80 cm