Max Cole, »Anza Borrego«, 1986, Acryl auf Leinwand, Detail
2004 Max Cole
2 April to June 2004
Max Cole – paintings and graphic
Cabinet Exhibition in the window
According to the artist Max Cole, born in Kansas in 1939, when she first began developing her work consistently in the 1960’s, she tried to determine what the fundamentals were of painting. Following a long process of simplification, she opted to forego subject, colour and composition – in favour of achieving a balance of the picture surface – and decided instead to work with the horizontal line, the most abstract, and at the same time, most self-evident, element of painting. Two principles of the linear may be distinguished in Max Cole’s works in our perception of the picture format. The horizontally-layered “stripes” in ornamental repetition create the effect that these merely comprise an excerpt of a presumably endless surface. The picture surface is transported into the room by the totally differing painterly character of the stripes as well as their relief-type treatment of being painted next to, on top of and behind each other. Upon this elementary foundation, a second linear principle is built: the short, hand-drawn strokes which are lined up close together in the interim space between two “horizons” and – similar to a heart rate – may be interpreted as intervals of time, with which the artist writes herself into the space she has created. The beauty of these works stems from the concentration upon the material chosen, into which Max Cole imbues an inner structure, whose sensual wealth and lively imperfection is anything but minimalist.
(Artist Book)
Max Cole – paintings and graphic
Cabinet Exhibition in the window
According to the artist Max Cole, born in Kansas in 1939, when she first began developing her work consistently in the 1960’s, she tried to determine what the fundamentals were of painting. Following a long process of simplification, she opted to forego subject, colour and composition – in favour of achieving a balance of the picture surface – and decided instead to work with the horizontal line, the most abstract, and at the same time, most self-evident, element of painting. Two principles of the linear may be distinguished in Max Cole’s works in our perception of the picture format. The horizontally-layered “stripes” in ornamental repetition create the effect that these merely comprise an excerpt of a presumably endless surface. The picture surface is transported into the room by the totally differing painterly character of the stripes as well as their relief-type treatment of being painted next to, on top of and behind each other. Upon this elementary foundation, a second linear principle is built: the short, hand-drawn strokes which are lined up close together in the interim space between two “horizons” and – similar to a heart rate – may be interpreted as intervals of time, with which the artist writes herself into the space she has created. The beauty of these works stems from the concentration upon the material chosen, into which Max Cole imbues an inner structure, whose sensual wealth and lively imperfection is anything but minimalist.
(Artist Book)