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Untitled
View through Harvard Museums
The canvas has several layers of white gesso, each of which is sanded to achieve a smooth ground. The artist applies the gesso ground around the outer edges of the stretcher, so that the painted surface appears to be floating on a smooth white porcelain block. He applies color in thin layers of glaze, like so many veils. As many as 40 layers of glaze are built up over a period of several weeks. Laying down even, continuous brushstrokes in alternating layers of vertical and horizontal orientations, he creates a subtle grid pattern. The artist often applies one or more colors in addition to blue -- in this case, 6-8 layers of cinnabar green at different depths (traces of which can be seen around the edges of the painting). Layers of ultramarine in combination with royal blue (a mixture of ultramarine and titanium white) make the other colors vibrate, acting "as a catalyst to bring the involved colors into spacious movement on the top of the surface." (See artist's statement in object file.) The surface texture is purely the result of brushwork, which creates a structural discipline that interacts with the expansive dematerialized sensuality of blue.
Busch-Reisinger Museum
Rudolf de Crignis New York N.Y. 1999 2001.
Harvard Art Museums/Busch-Reisinger Museum Purchase through the generosity of Credit Suisse Zurich
Title: Untitled
Description:
The canvas has several layers of white gesso, each of which is sanded to achieve a smooth ground.
The artist applies the gesso ground around the outer edges of the stretcher, so that the painted surface appears to be floating on a smooth white porcelain block.
He applies color in thin layers of glaze, like so many veils.
As many as 40 layers of glaze are built up over a period of several weeks.
Laying down even, continuous brushstrokes in alternating layers of vertical and horizontal orientations, he creates a subtle grid pattern.
The artist often applies one or more colors in addition to blue -- in this case, 6-8 layers of cinnabar green at different depths (traces of which can be seen around the edges of the painting).
Layers of ultramarine in combination with royal blue (a mixture of ultramarine and titanium white) make the other colors vibrate, acting "as a catalyst to bring the involved colors into spacious movement on the top of the surface.
" (See artist's statement in object file.
) The surface texture is purely the result of brushwork, which creates a structural discipline that interacts with the expansive dematerialized sensuality of blue.