The application of colour begins. 160 separate components for each of the ten elements of the series. There is a diagrammatic way of working here. Each of the elements is laid on a sheet, on the floor and painting process remains floor based throughout.
The diagrammatic feel to the potential layout is an issue. I recall Frank Stella's comment on the diagram: "A diagram is not a painting; it’s as simple as that. I can make a painting from a diagram, but can you? Can the public? It can just remain a diagram if that’s all I do, or if it’s a verbalisation it can just remain a verbalisation". (1)
The grid or diagrammatic structure is a rigorous compositional organisation. Within each element the the multiplicity of tiles and format (rational axis) defines a heightened spatial expansion. The handling of the painting separates the series from the purely diagrammatic; the structure of permeation.
The painting of each tile seems to be coherent. Marks, lines, gestures flow across the surfaces as if in a unified code. 'As if', and 'seem' are essential terminologies here, fundamental to painting itself. Colour seems to be the structure; it is as if the deep orange stands out against the grey.
Gerhard Richter: "The red in Picture 300, 1971, in the Bonn Retrospective Raisonne, had three basic colours as wells steps between, 'Zwischenschritte', bluer blue, greener yellow, whiter yellow etc; in all there were 180 squares. They were somewhat re tainted.
Peter Gidal: "Were?"
Gerhard Richter: "Seemed". (2)
Fact is illusionary in these elements and in my work. It probably is in all art. Peter Gidal adds as a footnote: 'Perception and knowledge do not coincide ; any tentative relation is not automatic, it needs to be made'. (3)
But, my painting process is undoubtedly to do with colour and to make the painting look compelling. 16 components for each element have to work across and with each other within their base colour context. Some darker, some lighter, some fluorescent. Painted mark, shape and form allude to a horizontal table/floor view. We look down on the shape and trace across a surface.
I am also thinking here about the concept of involuntary representation. In 1932, Brassai published 'Involuntary Sculptures' (4). Here, he featured everyday items, distorted then photographed close up and in strong light to render unrecognisable but as a new sculptural form. In each element of my work, there is an involuntary allusion to the recollection of configurations of a mosaic design. It is a kind of directional geometry. Involuntary as maybe, with my work, the start point must be distortion itself. Configurations of recall. Moreover, the result of the current process remains the language of colour, shape and line.
(1) Lippard, Lucy R (ed) . Questions to Stella and Judd. Interview by Bruce Glaser
http://web.mit.edu/allanmc/www/stellaandjudd.pdf. Accessed 3.6.18
(2) Gidal, Peter. Endless Finalities Part II. F Essay. (p.95, Gerhard Richter's 4900 Colours, Serpentine Gallery 2008)
(3) Gidal, Peter. Endless Finalities Part II. Footnote 10 to the essay. (p.99, Gerhard Richter's 4900 Colours, Serpentine Gallery 2008)
(4) Exhibition label. Shape of Light. Tate Modern 2 May to 4 October 2018
(2) Gidal, Peter. Endless Finalities Part II. F Essay. (p.95, Gerhard Richter's 4900 Colours, Serpentine Gallery 2008)
(3) Gidal, Peter. Endless Finalities Part II. Footnote 10 to the essay. (p.99, Gerhard Richter's 4900 Colours, Serpentine Gallery 2008)
(4) Exhibition label. Shape of Light. Tate Modern 2 May to 4 October 2018
