Black Soft Form 3, 2016

Bosiljka Zirojevic Lecic  

A study in silence and structure. This 2014 acrylic painting explores the tension between depth and surface. The monochrome black palette eliminates distraction. It forces the eye to focus on the subtle architecture of the image. Sharp lines intersect. Form emerges from the void. The composition suggests a folded surface or a geometric void. It plays with the perception of internal and external space. This approach reflects the academic curiosity of a professor trained at the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad. The minimalism is precise. The execution is disciplined. Each crease creates a ghostly highlight against the deep pigment. It is an exploration of subtraction. The artwork transforms a flat plane into a tactile experience. It resides at the intersection of painting and sculptural relief. The narrative is purely visual. It offers a meditative experience through strict geometry. This diptych component uses the power of the void to evoke a sense of timelessness. The result is a sophisticated dialogue between light and shadow.

The dominant material used in the work is textile - industrial fabric, which in the very process of creation becomes the material that "makes" the image, that is, translates it into an object. By using textile as a building element, the material itself becomes the primary surface of the object - representation, with certain specificities and qualities - softness, elasticity, tactility... The very organization of the space of the image - object is dominated by geometric shapes, which are marked by joints (seams) and which fit together.
In some places the joints are subtle and slightly indicated, and in some works they are robust and emphasized - thus creating a relief drawing that emerges from the surface into space. The softness of the material itself, which makes up the image and builds the composition, is contrasted with the hardness of the linear system of the drawing, which appears as a network of lines with certain dynamics.

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.

From Soft Forms series.
Industrial wool fabric, sewing, and oil pastel on acrylic-painted canvas.
Signed on the back by the artist.