This large-scale exhibition is dedicated to the work of Tomas Rajlich. In a partial retrospective, it concentrates on a cycle of works that was originally exhibited in a one-man show at the Gemeentemuseum in The Hague in 1979. This marked the end of a period in which the artist had conducted an in-depth exploration of the potential of the colour black in dialogue with a geometric approach that made Rajlich one of the protagonists of Fundamental Painting in Europe.
Faithful to the idea of monochrome and interested in a fundamental interpretation of the minimalist aesthetic, Rajlich’s approach to painting coincided with a historical moment in which the arrival of conceptual art seemed
to have relegated painting to a secondary position. Setting out from a core ofworks characterised by an industrial look and a modular quality, Rajlich successively set out to explore the combination of the impersonal, the gesture and the creative force of light. The latter is combined with several variations of intensity and colour, radically modifying the surface of the painting and bringing out the two-dimensionality of the object.
The group of works that form Black Paintings bears witness to one of the most important stages in Rajlich’s career. After exhausting the stimulus that had driven him to explore the rigorously monochrome potential of painting, the artist went on to introduce gold in his compositions, continuing to appeal to the sensibility of the viewer and to question the potential of the painting without abandoning the basic principles of his investigation.
The opening of the exhibition will also be the occasion for the presentation of the new monographic volume dedicated to the artist by ABC-ARTE edizioni, edited by Michele Robecchi and with a critical contribution by Flaminio Gualdoni.
