Mimi Eres, Stripes 22/27, 2022. Acrylic on canvas, 98 x 113 cm.
Referring to the Google dictionary definition provided by Oxford Languages, the term stripe stands for “the region of plane between two parallel lines,” i.e., that elongated subject, which has often claimed its starring presence predominantly within abstract or minimalist works. In fact, the popularity of streaks, the presence of which can already be found in the architecture and decorative motifs of the most ancient civilizations, did not spread as an autonomous subject of compositions until the 20th century, a period in which the depictions of grids and monochromes also enjoyed great success. This recurrence can in fact be found in the work of a number of masters, exponents of abstractionism and minimalism, who have practiced, or continue to practice, between the twentieth century and the present time, such as Barnett Newman, Sean Scully and Agnes Martin, from whose analysis of the work will emerge their personal interpretation of the use of this linear element. Speaking of Barnett Newman, the American sculptor and painter born in 1905 was one of the main exponents of Color Field Painting, one of the currents of Abstract Expressionism, through which he predominantly investigated variegated areas of color separated by vertical lines, aimed at originating harmonic relationships of subtle balance, which tend to dilate space. The above is well exemplified by the masterpiece dated 1967, namely the acrylic on canvas Voice of Fire, an abstract work in which the American made three vertical stripes of equal size, in which the outer two are painted blue and the middle one red. Such type of artistic investigation, falls squarely within the stylistic framework of the most celebrated masters of Abstract Expressionism, who, like Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko and many others, questioned what painting actually was, trying to arouse emotions and ideas to the exclusion of the typical three-dimensionality of the artistic medium, in order to promote reactions aroused solely by color, brushstroke and texture. As for Sean Scully, on the other hand, the Irish-born U.S. painter, born in 1945, is known for his abstract paintings oftentimes characterized by a rhythmic structure of colored rectangles, in which a patterned decoration of stripes or checks takes over. An example of this approach to abstractionism is the 1999 oil painting entitled Wall of Light Desert Night, which, as part of the Wall of Light series, was inspired by a nighttime trip that took place in the Nevada desert, a destination chosen by Scully in order to escape from the chaos of nearby Las Vegas, where he was staying. It is precisely the colors admired in this arid ecosystem observed at dusk that underlie the chromatics chosen for the aforementioned painting, where blue, gray and black striped rectangles allude to the advancing darkness of night on the sand surface, finely represented by three “bricks” of a soft light pink. In this context, the viewer can well imagine the gradual triumph of obscurity over light, going to contemplate, together with the artist, the pathos that envelops darkness, understood as those innermost mysteries of the unknowable, aimed at making man question himself now for centuries too far. In conclusion, the third “master of stripes” is Agnes Martin, an American minimalist painter, whose artistic experimentation, from 1974 until her death, mainly focused on the investigation of the creative potential of a single form, which, as for example with vertical and horizontal lines, she inserted within a square canvas of always the same size. What has just been described can be seen in the 1999 painting entitled Happy Holiday, an abstract work distinguished by a square pictorial field divided into fourteen horizontal stripes of equal width, where the color white alternates with peachy pink, in a pattern of bands delimited by undulating lines made in graphite pencil. This painting, like the others of the same period, was begun by priming the entire surface of the canvas with a layer of white acrylic gesso, which, never completely covered with successive states of color, gives the work a broad visual spatiality and a unique, vibrant luminosity. In addition, the very combination of the use of paint with an imprecise demarcation of pencil lines seems to remind the viewer, as well as the artist himself, of how in reality geometric perfection cannot exist in nature, opening up a long reflection on the marriage of art and awareness of our surroundings.
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Nataliia Sydorova, Two red strips, 2019. Oil on canvas, 100 x 80 cm.
Thomas Kausel, Geometrische abstraktion blue and blue, 2022. Oil / acrylic on wood, 40 x 40 cm.
The strip: the line in Abstractionism and Minimalism
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Making a second reference to the aforementioned definition of the stripe, it is possible to see that it contains the word straight, a term intended to indicate a particular line distinguished by the peculiarity of never changing direction. Consequently, the history of the stripe in art can also be traced by explicitly referring to that of the line, its constituent element par excellence, which, since the twentieth century, has enjoyed a fair amount of success in the creative world, as the examples of Lyrical Abstractionism, Geometric Abstractionism and Minimalism show. Regarding the first movement, this abstract language, developed by Russian painter and musician Vasily Kandinsky and other artists, including the Swiss Paul Klee, identifies line as one of the essential elements of form, as well as the only entity capable of generating a surface as a function of its thickening. A work that demonstrates the above is Wassily Kandinsky’s Transverse Line, in which it is precisely the orientation of the lines that determines the title of the masterpiece, in which the arrangement of shapes and colors evokes feelings of optimism and happiness. With regard to the example of geometric abstractionism, on the other hand, it is impossible not to refer to the work of Piet Mondrian, whose stylistic features involve the use of a few simple elements of visual language, such as vertical and horizontal lines interlocked orthogonally, which are arranged against a white background marked by the use of the primary colors yellow, red and blue. Finally, with regard to minimalism, again the line becomes the protagonist of a language aimed at representing a radical change in the artistic climate, characterized by a process of simplification of reality, based on its reduction to the most elementary geometric structures. To such purely twentieth-century modes of interpretation of the line, the “mother” of stripes, are added the streaky viewpoints of Artmajeur artists, such as, for example, those of Carla Sá Fernandes, Robert Van Den Herik, and Natalie Levkovska.
Tehos, Tehos – automn leaves, 2021. Collage on canvas, 100 x 100 cm.
Ronald Hunter, Yellow panels, 2022. Acrylic on canvas, 60 x 150 cm.
Carla Sá Fernandes, The emotional creation #364, 2022. Acrylic on canvas, 90 x 180 cm.
Carla Sá Fernandes: The emotional creation #364
The colored stripes made in acrylic on canvas by Carla Sá Fernandes pursue the intent, as per the title, to allude to the emotional sphere, bringing to light all those intuitive, visceral, spontaneous, intense and explosive sensations that we are often forced to conceal behind a more practical and reasonable sense of duty. In addition, such an interpretation of the work could be enriched by the careful study of art history, which makes possible the association of The emotional creation #364 with Achæan, Bridget Louise Riley’s masterpiece dated 1981. It is precisely the work of the latter British painter, one of the leading exponents of Op art, that represents, like the artist’s acrylic from Artmajeur, a composition of stripes, which help define the structure of the painting. In the case of 1981, however, Riley developed her own color palette, totally inspired by the colors of ancient Egyptian tomb paintings, which she visited on a trip dated 1979. Finally, again demonstrating the relevance of stripes in the work of the British artist, it is important to mention the 2014 exhibition entitled Bridget Riley: The Stripe Paintings, an event, which, taking place at the David Zwirner gallery (London), was conceived precisely with the intention of highlighting Riley’s dedication to the interaction between form and color, precisely through the use of elementary lines.
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Robert Van Den Herik, On the way home, 2022. Oil on wood, 80 x 80 cm.
Robert Van Den Herik: On the way home
Columns of varying heights, decorated with black and white stripes and arranged for purely ornamental purposes in the desert landscape of a mysterious planet in the solar system, represent, along with the absence of human life forms, the symbol of a world first colonized and then abandoned by man, who has brought into the universe stylistic features clearly traceable to the work of Daniel Buren, a French conceptual artist, painter and sculptor born in 1938. I am referring in particular to the latter’s work The Two Plateaus, which, more commonly known as Columns of Buren, is an art installation from 1985-1986, arranged in the inner courtyard of the Palais Royal in Paris, France. This “addition” to the latter building, built in 1624 at the behest of Cardinal Richelieu, was due to the wishes of former French Minister of Culture Jack Lang, who decided to beautify the courtyard of the palace, which had previously been used as a parking lot, with a work commissioned from Buren. It was precisely the realization of the latter that generated a heated debate on the integration of ancient and modern art, a reflection, which, in the case of Robert Van Den Herik’s work, could even extend to the “fusion” of ancient art, modern art and landscape, inviting the viewer to imagine the relationship between creative flair and new worlds to be “colonized.”
Natalie Levkovska, Let’s dance!, 2022. Drawing / gouache / pencil on paper, 72 x 52 cm.
Natalie Levkovska: Let’s dance!
Levkovska’s work includes, in the language of figurative arts, a must-have of the fashion world, such as the striped dress! Just such type of clothing is able to tell a rich story full of contrasts, in which stripes assume, both a positive, and a negative role. Indeed, during the Middle Ages they were purely associated with the features of prisoners’ uniforms, which made them perceived by public opinion as obvious signs of transgression. Later, and more specifically during the French Revolution, striped dresses, worn by the Sanculots, became the purest symbol of political upheaval. In a “similar” way, the association of stripes with a political message was repeated in 1777, when the stripes of the newly created American flag stood for the idea of freedom. Starting around 1858, however, stripes also became extremely popular in the navy, as, in the same year, they were chosen as the pattern of the official uniform of French sailors. It was not until the 20th century, however, that the stripes became more purely decorative and less “symbolic,” thanks to the work of Coco Chanel, Adidas, Sonia Rykiel, Tommy Hilfiger, Jean Paul Gaultier, and many others, who turned them into a clothing classic, adaptable to any kind of occasion.
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