Unpainting unpainted almost monochromes
paintings, almost monochromes. Shimmering silver
surfaces that are animated by the the reverberation of space we view them in, thick colorful coat of paint obscured by the smoothness of the warm black layer over top are exploring abstract painting in a very personal, innovative and
performative way.
Two artists of the emerging generation. Both North
Americans, both under thirties create performative
paradoxes. The New York based Jacob Kassay
pursuing the lineage of painting as places for light
and shadows and Vancouver based Andrew Dadson
offering black—thick juicy paintings and leftover
colors buried underneath the black, gathering at the painting's edge.
Kassay’s making of 'colorless pieces about
color -quoting Antony Huberman-
opaques surfaces about reflection, metal painting
about light, fixes images about movement, abstract
paintings as consequence of a procedure as well as
of a rigorous conceptual System', equals
Dadson’s work where the artist by obscuring in his
painting adds to the layers of meaning within his
other actions:" I’m just more concerned with
how to fill theses spaces with something then to let them stay empty" says Dadson interviewed by Monika Szewczyk on Mousse Magazine.
Astonishly we might use almost the same
Huberman’s sentences for describing Dadson’s
canvases as Kassay, he makes monochrome
surfaces about color, thick layering of paint about
light, bidimensional paint about sculptures, spaces
where nothing really happens making something
happen.
Both artists prepare their canvases with loosely
applied, broad strokes of color, Kassay’s work is
then chemically plated. The resulting mirror-like
planes reveal the ghostly presence of the
underpainting as surface irregularities, pock-marked occasionally with tiny patches of color. In
addition, any exposed canvas is scorched by the
plating process, resulting in dark, smoky edges to
the metallic surfaces.
Dadson uses all these layered coats of oil paint in
different colours to build up the canvas that are
continuously scraped off to the sides and hold it off
the wall and then he applies the black or white
colour over top. All of the little bits of paint colour
end up holding the canvas so that it is not touching the wall and is angled off the wall. "I was thinking about them in the same way as the
photographs of painted lawns where the paint tries
to cover over part of the landscape but little bits of the colour of the grass etc. still appear."says the artist describing his work while Kassay’s work concerns in putting a painting trough the photographic development process of being dipped, bathed and fixed. Working with an electroplater in Pennsylvania, the artist began plating a series of primed canvases.
Dadson by overcoming the two-dimensional plane
of the canvas in order to create a sculptural
relationship with the space, and Kassay by painting
without color paint and image taking on all lights,
shadows, colors and images of their surroundings,
are both creating objects about being in a room
with an abstract painting.
And that is precisely the reason why in the crowed
and delicate word of abstract painting you might be
seducted by the innovative work of those two
young and talented artists'.
Most of us know that silence and blankness were a
point of arrival of Malevich’s work or
Rauschenberg’s white paintings as well as Cage’s
4’33’ which was inspired by the same famous
monochromes: their being full of meaning was truly
consisting in the rupture made of silence of both
music and painting.
Kassay’s shimmering surfaces or Dadson thick
colorful paint over canvas and neon tubes seem to
be a starting point so that 'End is the
Beginning'became title of Dadson's installation
in the Project Space of Galleria Noero. A
sequence of neon tubes constitutes a billboard in
which the light is obscured by paint, creating an
effect of obliteration, as if it was the vanishing of
the sun. From both artists meaning and beauty
seem to ensue from the light or strong interaction
between artworks and ambiences, between
paintings selves, between them and us.
Andrew Dadson not by chance quoting Aristotle’s
saying "nature abhors a vacuum" says
during the same aforemetioned interview: "I do
think the globalization of nothing (this idea that
nothing is distinct) is happening everywhere today
which promises nothing but cultural homogeneity,
I'm just more concerned with how to fill theses
spaces with something then to let them stay
empty."
We might grasp the meaning of those words by
gazing upon material colors crowding the edges of
Dadson's Canvases or upon colors dissolving in the
shimmering Kassay’s surfaces which softly emit
Rothko’s imaginary taken at every moment from the
observer generating a transitory and provisional
Suprematism which Dadson likes to define as
'suburban' while referring to his outdoors
performances, he tells about his painted square as
an imaginary border, which breaks it apart and
high-lights it from its surroundings and the the
black as the feeling and the area around it is the
void.
1
eft
Andrew DadsonWhite Lean Painting With
Colour2009
right Jacob Kassay All works "Untitled",
2009
2
Jacob KassayUntitled
Installation view at Collezione Maramotti
Ph.C. Dario Lasagni
3
Jacob Kassay All worksUntitled,
2009
acrylic and silver deposit on canvas
Installation view, Eleven Rivington, New York
Courtesy Eleven Rivington, New York
Photograph by Ron Amstutz
4
Jacob Kassay All works Untitled,
2010
acrylic and silver deposit on canvas
Installation view, Eleven Rivington, New York
Courtesy Eleven Rivington, New York
5-6 Andrew Dadson White Lean
Painting With Colour 2009
oil on canvas cm 140 x 143 x 56
Courtesy: the artist and Galleria Franco Noero,
Torino
Photo: Sebastiano Pellion di Persano
7
Andrew Dadson Untitled Lean
Painting Left 2009
oil on canvas cm 190 x 244 x 55
Courtesy: the artist and Galleria Franco Noero,
Torino
Photo: Sebastiano Pellion di Persano
8
Andrew Dadson
Installation view
Galleria Franco Noero, Torino, 7 novembre 2009 -
14 gennaio 2010
Photo: Sebastiano Pellion di Persano
9
Andrew Dadson The End Is The
Beginning 2019
Fluorescent light fixtures, UV lights, spray
paint, enamel, plastic, cm 260 x 340x12,7
Installation view in the Project Space
10
Andrew Dadson Black Lawn Seattle
2010
Courtesy: the artist and Galleria Franco Noero,
Torino
Photo: Franco Noero
Almost Monochromes: a confrontation
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- Pierfrancesco Cravel
- 05 August 2010