Victor Vasarely

at William Weston Gallery Ltd( TEFAF Maastricht 2012)

Kapolna - Réponses à Vasarely. Replies to Vasarely, 1973

 It's a box. You are looking inside the box.Usually you hear: "Think outside the box". But life in the box is not as easy as it seems. The inside is not a big empty space. It is sets and sets of collections of other smaller boxes, figures and shapes. It is a difficult task to arrange them, so they fit into a nice pattern.And for those who want to go outside, there are always doors. You just need to find them (orange and violet figures).

Gerhard Richter

at Van de Weghe Fine Art (TEFFAF Maastricht 2012)

Abstraktes Bild (889-12), 1932

There is a conflict. The man conquers nature( a beige pipe in the lower center background) by erecting in its place a huge cement block(the porous gray-blue figure in the upper right part of the picture). The orange flames in the upper left corner show the ongoing struggle. Despite by feeling victorious the man starts an internal conflict. He tries to change the barrier he himself created(the blue scratches, yellow and red lines on the cement) . But it is a much harder task to accomplish.

Joan Miró

at Waterhouse and Dodd (TEFAF Maastricht 2012)

Sans Titre

You have a hive of different thoughts (the gray figure in the lower left corner). You have passion (the red figure in the lower center). Then one of the thoughts adjacent to the passion gets extended, becoming an idea(a black line between the gray figure and the red figure going up to the black figure in the center). Fueled by the passion the idea grows into a  something real. It is already a thing that you do. Combining it with other ideas of yours(the black line bordering the red figure from the right) and with ideas from others(the black line from the yellow figure) takes your thing to another level. In the process of doing the thing you create other ideas(the black lines extended from the black figure). They may not lead to anything else. And maybe the thing will die off eventually, but the main thing is that while you are busy with all of these, you find new passions(the color circles : green, blue, violet, gray).

Joaquin Torres García

at Galeria Sur(TEFAF Maastricht 2012)

Estructura Universal con tres arcos, 1945

 The person is divided into two parts: basic instincts - animal(the left small arc) and spirit - soul(the right small arc). The human basic instincts part is the same as in any other animals - they want to eat, to breed and to be safe. The spirit part is what makes us different from the animal world. This is logic and abstract thinking.It let us observe and conclude.A mix of these two building blocks gives us the universe of personalities, characters, feelings and behaviors. This is the third big arc. That arc lets people do almost anything they can think of.

Chu Teh-Chun

at Salis and Vertes(TEFAF Maastricht 2012)

Untitled

This is a meditation.To heal and recharge your mind(the darker upper half of the painting) you need to connect and to listen to your body(the lighter lower part). It is difficult to communicate because your conscience is blocking low level signals(the multitude of spots in the middle). Some signals are getting though but are distorted and misunderstood.

Karel Appell

at Osborne Samuel(TEFAF Maastricht 2012)

Personnages, 1960

A great movie or a play has several layers of content. There is a main plot that is easy to spot and follow(black paint). There are several supporting plots (red and blue paint). They are shorter, less obvious, but not less important. All plots are interacting, intersecting and converging with each other. These interactions create the sandbox where the personages live. The last layer is the number of citations, visual clues(the doodles). They connect the movie to other pieces of artwork, thus putting the movie in th global art context.

Josef Albers

at Galerie Vedovi(TEFAF Maastricht 2012)

 

Study for Homage to the Square, 1961

Square is a perfect figure. Anyway you look it is the same. The perfect square has only the squares inside.But nothing is perfect (the inner squares are off center). The inner squares are darker, more mysterious. The perfect orange square that is attracts you initially. The unknown inner imperfect squares create a tunnel that draws you in. This combination builds a new love.

Otto Dix

at Richard Nagy(TEFAF Maastricht 2012)

 

Franzosisches Dorf, 1918

You travel to a nice small village. Everything seem different, new, even strange : colors of buildings, people's clothes, stone-paved streets. But as the mystery of new place wears off, you are stRting to feel the urge to move on. The purpose of the journey is not the destination, but the process of traveling, exploring the unknown.

Gerhard Richter

at Anthony Meier Fine Arts(TEFAF Maastricht 2012)

25 Farben, 1932

Something is going on. you can feel it. The Change is everywhere : people are changing colors, sides and rules of the game while playing.The problem is you can't grasp what it is. You are too close to the game. you are so close that you don't see the entire board. You understand that you need to move away, so you can get a good overlook. But you are so afraid to miss any piece of action, you are just frozen the epicenter.

André Derain

at Landau Fine Art (TEFAF Maastricht 2012)

André Derain Bateaux sur la plage à la Collioure, 1905

People are dreaming of big things and far away lands(green, violet and orange stains in the background). They want to journey to exotic places, they want to do grand things. Everyone has a dream about something that would / should be a purpose of his/her life.With big hopes they even build boats(the blue boats in the lower part). But most of them prefer to sail without leaving the port. Where the competition is fierce, but everything is familiar, without threatening mystery and you know how to maneuver for a better spot. Only a single one who didn't build his boat on hopes, but on practicality and common sense, sailed away to explore new lands. 

Eva Hesse

at Kukje Gallery (TEFAF Maastricht 2012)

No Title, 1960

Fear. It is full of jealousy, intolerance (yellow), steel(gray). The threat looks like a bomb coming your way(The big black figure slightly off center to the right). It is inevitable. You are frozen, can't move. You feel trapped in a steel cage(gray frame around the picture). But there is hope(white figures). There is always hope. That's why people do anything when they are really afraid. And the bomb looks a lot like an amphora, so this is not new.

Geer van Velde

at Frans Jacobs Fine Art (TEFAF Maastricht 2012)

Composition, 1962

Things that happen to us in life are shaping our personality. Every event breaks apart a layer of inside (a black triangle in the bottom left center, black figure in the top center and a big gray arrow with navy end in the upper right corner). The broken pieces are trying to get back together like a planet that builds itself from the star leftovers. The pieces are not fit well as they were before.So our personality is a mosaic of our character and events.

Afro Basaldella

at Haunch of Venison (TEFAF Maastricht 2012)

Coro Di Santa Sabina, 1962

The faith(red) provides you with a moral code(black), some rules to guide your behavior. Sometimes it is easy to follow (thin black lines), sometimes it requires you to do big sacrifices(black stains). In rare cases the sacrifices are so huge, they take you out of the picture(the black stain in the upper left corner). But your sacrifices helps others followers to solidify their faith and to continue the journey. Every faith has an underlining of intolerance(yellow background) to other faiths, this is in human nature to think that your believes are the right ones.

Sandra Blow Ra

Sandra Blow Ra at The Fine Art Society (TEFAF Maastricht 2012)

Selva Oscura, 1993

Sometimes the dreams are more real than the reality. The dream is remarkably vivid with bright colors and "bold scenes". It is in the contrast to the real life which moves from gray to black. The dream is not a continuous movie, but a series of short episodes some of which are continuation of others.When you try to analyze the dream after you woke up, you realize that the dream is a weird mix of things that happened to you in reality multiplied by your feelings and divided into small episodes.

Joan Mirò

Joan Mirò at Brame and Lorenceau (TEFAF Maastricht 2012)

Composition au visage, 1965

This is human memory. It is like a fishing net. It catches some events(the blue stain or the red stain in lower right corner) or persons(red-green circle or yellow-black one). And some things slip through with water(time) as  the black dots or pink background stains here. The things that memory catches are changing your memories. They create new associations. They bend the memory to accommodate the events and rationalize them.

Ton Frenken

Ton Frenken at Borzo Kunsthandel BV (TEFAF Maastricht 2012)

Dyptique, 2002

 Two persons. Two lonely souls. They are looking for someone to be in their lives. They look pretty hard. Each constructed a lighthouse to signal other where to find them( the vertical black-and-white line at the edge). The soul-mate searching experience is mostly a negative one for them. That's why the lighthouse became more black than white over time. Or maybe the search criteria they use is too stringent, too black-and-white, so the others keep away from them. There is another possibility that they are too tender, too gentle, too subtle and the lighthouse is their defending mechanism. Anyway, somehow they found each other. Finally they align one to the other. And now the game can be started! (black and white squares in the center).

Hermann Max Pechstein

Hermann Max Pechstein at Beck & Eggeling(TEFAF Maastricht 2012)

Das gelbe Haus, Waldausgang mit Hochsommerdüne, 1919

At first, you are full of energy. You think you can walk on water and climb vertical walls(the yellow stain in the lower right  corner). You try to take a shortcut through the wilderness, storming up the hill. It is logical because the shortest distance to your goal is a straight line. Then you meet the reality(the brown line - earth layer above the yellow stain in the lower right corner). You get smarter (the violet line above the brown one). You realize that this approach will not take you even to the green grass of the forest, not mentioning the nice house in the field behind the forest. You back off and reassess your position (the mix of violet and brown spots in the lower center). You take the road that leads to the house you so desire to get to. The road is a slow route taking much more time, turning and running to the sides and over the hills. But eventually and surely you will get to the goal of your journey.

Imi Knoebel

Imi Knoebel at Von Bartha (TEFAF Maastricht 2012)

Lina-Liza-Strasse 4, 2000

The human brain always looks for patterns and logical explanation of the world. If you glance at the picture, you will try subconsciously to arrange the rectangles into a straight grid. But they are not straight. Some go this way, some stick out. Yes, Nature has its own laws, but it has so many exceptions that the exceptions become the new law. There is no justice in the nature, only a chance. You can draw a yellow card, you can get lucky and draw a white card (or no card at all). But there are cases when you get the black card. It is not fair, it is random.

Camille Bryen

 Camille Bryen at Applicat-Prazan (TEFAF Maastricht 2012)

New York, 1955

New York is a very vibrant and diverse city. There is so much to do and to see(All those small stains and figures). The place is filled with energy(blue tones). People are hustling around.You are getting charged with the surrounding energy(the white stain in the center with blue inlets). You want to hurry somewhere and do something. But there are so many things you can do, you freeze in the middle unsure what is your next move is. You feel alienated, rejected and unwelcome. You reflect your feelings onto the city. You are starting to dislike it(black stains and yellow-green background).