Matti Braun Untitled, 2014
Silk, dye, powder-coated aluminium
130 x 100 x 3,5 cm (51 1/8 x 39 3/8 x 1 1/8 in)
The work consists of a silk panel in a narrow aluminum frame. The rectangular image shows a horizontal progression of three colors, from top to bottom, blue into a light blue-green into off-white. The transitions between the different colors appear seamless. There is a slight sheen to the silk as it catches the light. Looking at the work, one begins to see the colors shimmer and glow, as if their intensity were continuously changing.
Whereas previous series of silk paintings included brightly colored passages or circular splashes more overtly reminiscent of post-painterly abstraction, the works in this series use a reduced palette to show soft color progressions. The dye process has its roots in Matti Braun's investigation and appropriation of traditional techniques of textile production often used for religious or ritualistic purposes but unlike his earlier patola or batik series, they no longer show the iconographic traces of their sources. There is a palpable tension between this work's restraint and its hypnotic lushness created by the combination of apparently simple means and the complexity of their creation, both the extensive references to the artist's project of investigating historical and cultural phenomena and the more immediate curiosity of how the seamless color modulations are created.
Whereas previous series of silk paintings included brightly colored passages or circular splashes more overtly reminiscent of post-painterly abstraction, the works in this series use a reduced palette to show soft color progressions. The dye process has its roots in Matti Braun's investigation and appropriation of traditional techniques of textile production often used for religious or ritualistic purposes but unlike his earlier patola or batik series, they no longer show the iconographic traces of their sources. There is a palpable tension between this work's restraint and its hypnotic lushness created by the combination of apparently simple means and the complexity of their creation, both the extensive references to the artist's project of investigating historical and cultural phenomena and the more immediate curiosity of how the seamless color modulations are created.