Harvard Art Museums > 2001.48: Untitled Paintings Collections Search Exit Deep Zoom Mode Zoom Out Zoom In Reset Zoom Full Screen Add to Collection Order Image Copy Link Copy Citation Citation"Untitled (Rudolf de Crignis) , 2001.48,” Harvard Art Museums collections online, Nov 07, 2024, https://hvrd.art/o/172847. Reuse via IIIF Toggle Deep Zoom Mode Download This object does not yet have a description. Identification and Creation Object Number 2001.48 People Rudolf de Crignis, Swiss (Winterthur, Switzerland 1948 - 2006 New York City) Title Untitled Other Titles Alternate Title: #99.45 Classification Paintings Work Type painting Date 1999 Culture American Persistent Link https://hvrd.art/o/172847 Physical Descriptions Medium Oil on canvas (cotton duck) Dimensions 152.4 x 152.4 cm (60 x 60 in.) Provenance Recorded Ownership History Rudolf de Crignis, New York, N.Y., 1999, 2001. Acquisition and Rights Credit Line Harvard Art Museums/Busch-Reisinger Museum, Purchase through the generosity of Credit Suisse, Zurich Copyright © Estate of Rudolf de Crignis Accession Year 2001 Object Number 2001.48 Division Modern and Contemporary Art Contact am_moderncontemporary@harvard.edu Permissions The Harvard Art Museums encourage the use of images found on this website for personal, noncommercial use, including educational and scholarly purposes. To request a higher resolution file of this image, please submit an online request. Descriptions Description The canvas has several layers of white gesso, each of which is sanded to achieve a smooth ground. The artist applies the gesso ground around the outer edges of the stretcher, so that the painted surface appears to be floating on a smooth white porcelain block. He applies color in thin layers of glaze, like so many veils. As many as 40 layers of glaze are built up over a period of several weeks. Laying down even, continuous brushstrokes in alternating layers of vertical and horizontal orientations, he creates a subtle grid pattern. The artist often applies one or more colors in addition to blue -- in this case, 6-8 layers of cinnabar green at different depths (traces of which can be seen around the edges of the painting). Layers of ultramarine in combination with royal blue (a mixture of ultramarine and titanium white) make the other colors vibrate, acting "as a catalyst to bring the involved colors into spacious movement on the top of the surface." (See artist's statement in object file.) The surface texture is purely the result of brushwork, which creates a structural discipline that interacts with the expansive dematerialized sensuality of blue. Commentary After a successful and multi-faceted early career in Zurich (including sculpture, performance, installation and photography), Swiss artist De Crignis turned to painting at the end of the 1970s. He moved to New York after a visit there in 1985. His experience of the Swiss tradition of geometric abstraction coupled with his exposure in New York to works of Minimal Art, Radical Painting, and Concrete Art (by artists like Agnes Martin, Robert Ryman, Ad Reinhardt, and Brice Marden) led him to paint increasingly abstract pictures about color, light, and space. He has produced ultramarine paintings since around 1992 with the goal of achieving pictorial depth by only painterly means. Since there is no single focal point, viewers must adjust their own physical position(s) of viewing according to their perception of the picture. In the artist's own words, with "this lively act of perception, the work becomes a picture-space." Moreover, the square format manages to refer both to the material world, its dimensions determined by the artist's own body, and to the more Platonic tradition harking back to Malevich. Publication History Celka Straughn, Stratification: An Installation of Works since 1960, brochure, Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 2005), [n.p.] ill. (color) Peter Nisbet and Joseph Koerner, The Busch-Reisinger Museum, Harvard University Art Museums, ed. Peter Nisbet, Harvard University Art Museums and Scala Publishers Ltd. (Cambridge, MA and London, England, 2007), p. 20 Exhibition History Stratification: An Installation of Works since 1960, Busch-Reisinger Museum, 09/17/2005 - 02/26/2006 Verification Level This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Modern and Contemporary Art at am_moderncontemporary@harvard.edu