Vertical Abstraction

Original title: Abstraction verticale

Vertical construction on three columns of rectangles that seem to float like steles or suspended pages. The two yellow blocks at top left and in the centre create a diagonal, which the large textured panel on the right balances through its height and mass. The vivid turquoise square in the centre is the point of breath of the whole. The palette plays on the contrast between turquoise, midnight blue and deep green on one side, and lemon yellow, ochre or mustard on the other. The contrast is strong but remains harmonious because the greens act as a transition between the two families. The right-hand panel moves from yellow to water green and off-white, which gives the impression of an inner source of light. Technique and matter are real strengths; this is a matter-driven mixed media. The right-hand panel is very grainy, with a plaster or sandy paste that catches the light like a wall or a stone; the lower central panel seems covered with crumpled paper, or paper mounted on canvas, with folds that evoke drapery; the yellows are smoother, worked with a knife or spatula, with traces of impasto; the nervous black lines outline the forms and give a graphic, almost calligraphic structure. This is lyrical, matter-based abstraction; one thinks of architectures without place, of fragments of walls or veils, with a balance between structure (the rectangles) and gesture (the black contours, the drips). The strengths of this canvas are the richness of its textures and the coherence of the large panel.