Soft Form 1, 2009

Bosiljka Zirojevic Lecic  

Deep silence permeates this composition. A singular shade of black dominates the canvas. The surface plays with light and shadow. A subtle diagonal fold creates a sense of three-dimensional presence. The artwork invites a tactile response. It explores the tension between flatness and depth. The artist utilizes the void to define space. Texture becomes the primary subject. Soft gradients shift across the dark expanse. This creates a luminous quality despite the monochromatic palette. The piece reflects an academic interest in internal and external spatial relationships. It strips away the superfluous to reach a meditative core. Every nuance of the black pigment contributes to a quiet intensity. The geometric division suggests an architectural precision. It balances a physical weight with an ethereal lightness. This painting transforms a simple color into a complex emotional landscape. The focus remains on the purity of form. The result is a sophisticated exercise in abstraction and visual culture.

The material used in this series of works is not typically painterly. By using plush as the basic foundation, it is positioned as a building element - the material is no longer just the basis of the painting, but becomes the primary surface of the object - the representation, with certain specificities (soft, smooth, shiny, solid...). At the same time, the selected material, with minimal interventions, forms the basis of a system of geometric images - shapes that are consciously devoid of color (I use materials that are achromatic) and in such a reduced order of all formal elements, a relationship of rhythmic movements in relation to space is established. The abstract structure of geometric surfaces becomes a game - reflection, which moves from the "formed sign" to the "visual whole". The basic premise of her artistic expression over a long period refers to the need for constant experimentation with the very construct of the painting and the material from which it is made. Within the established system of geometric, reduced forms that make up her artistic language, the surface of the painting and its pictorial value impose themselves as another field of action and possibility for expression. Positioning the material as a building element of the painting provides the opportunity to work and explore within an expanded field, where the characteristic properties of the materials used offer potential for the development of a specific artistic expression. By using unconventional painting substrates like aluminum, plush, PVC material, foil, and woolen fabric, the painting becomes part of a process that translates it into a painting-object, moving beyond the established plastic system of surface organization. This sculptural processing of the painting as an object provides a wide range of new modalities in positioning its visual and spatial effect. At the same time, the selected material, with minimal interventions, forms the basis of a system of geometric images and shapes that are consciously devoid of color. The materials used are most often achromatic, and in such a reduced order of all formal elements, a relationship is established between rhythm as a state and rhythmicity as a process. Her architectural approach of combining and composing reduced forms, which she treats as plates that fit together, gives her the opportunity to analytically connect with the essential elements of the plastic system: surface, line, color, matter, and material. By emphasizing composition and building structure through the relationships of forms, she strives for a compact whole in which all relationships are carefully thought out. 

Acrylic emulsion on industrial black velour fabric. From Achromatic Velour Paintings Series. Signed on the back by the artist