37. Canvas X [1985.-2001.]

A characteristic representative of the abstraction of the 70s, Miroslav Šutej (1936-2005) combined op-art structures, fragmented rasters creating optical illusions, with intense, pop-art colors in his painting and drawing oeuvre. His paintings created irregular patterns, which would try to energize the surface in unexpected ways. This painting approaches this problem with two shapes positioned on the left and right side. Both are textured with multicolored rectangles, and their distortions, as well as the lines on the shapes themselves, suggest some kind of spatiality or roundness of these two objects. Abstraction (and furthermore strongly geometric, which usually emphasizes the two-dimensional character of a picture) here obtains the illusion of three-dimensionality. Šutej skillfully used some settings of abstraction, playing with the dual nature of painting - as a surface and as an illusionary space. Also, here Šutej points out, inheriting the teachings of classical modernism and their postmodern critiques and relativizations, that the illusion of three-dimensionality is not necessarily linked to the figurative representation, and that abstract art is not obliged to remain faithful to the surface in composition. FG

Dimensions

width 140 cm, height 140 cm

Description

acrylic on canvas, signed in the middle bottom, in black, "Šutej"

Research information

The work is reproduced in the catalogue "Miroslav Šutej | Paintings on Canvas", Apedemak Gallery, 2002, on page 10, under the title "Canvas X".

Dating

1985.-2001.

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