Crescendo 2006

Gotthard Graubner's "Crescendo" is a symphony of color, a quiet explosion rendered on canvas with dye on synthetic batting. Here we see no figures, no explicit symbols, yet the very absence speaks volumes. The hazy veil of color—soft blues and gentle yellows—evokes the “horror vacui”, the fear of emptiness. This dread, so prevalent in the Middle Ages, drove artists to fill every space with symbolic figures and ornament. But here, Graubner inverts the impulse. He gives us a void, a space pregnant with potential, not unlike the “prima materia” of the alchemists. In the Renaissance, the use of color to evoke emotion rather than represent reality marked a shift towards a more subjective experience of art. The “sfumato” of Leonardo da Vinci blurred lines to create an ethereal, dreamlike quality, inviting viewers into a world of the subconscious. "Crescendo," with its ambiguous form and subtle tonality, engages us on a similar level, tapping into our collective memory of light, space, and the unknown. The emotional power lies in its invitation to project, to find meaning within the self, a symbol for the non-linear, cyclical nature of artistic expression.