Untitled 2007

Gerwald Rockenschaub made this untitled image using flat colors. I like the way that some of the elements are cut off by the edge, so you have to imagine how they extend beyond the frame. I get the feeling that the artist might have had a set of stencils and a limited palette. Did he begin by placing shapes on a black surface, moving them around until they were just so? Or did he begin with the black and paint shapes within it? I can imagine the artist thinking about balance and tension as he chose each form and the relationships between them. It’s a bit like a painting, but also a diagram or maybe an instruction manual. I'm reminded of the flat forms in early computer graphics, and how new technologies open up new possibilities for abstraction. Rockenschaub continues the conversation artists have been having for centuries, but with a contemporary twist. The end result is a simple yet compelling composition, one that invites multiple readings.