The sobriety and dryness of Concrete Art, which could be perceived as clinical, has here its spiritually individual expression. The linear and two-dimensional worlds of form in other paintings may be associatively reminiscent of chess boards, fabric structures, or tiles, because one tends to invoke a comparison with the familiar as a classification aid. But the works deviate from such models. In addition to the rhythmic surfaces, the gloss is added here as a bonus. The space is mirrored, a depth irritation is created that leaves open where the light is located.
In the modules there are freely chosen pauses, interruptions and gaps, which again call up another construction pattern. One follows the harmonic picture structure, which demands balance, because it is about a scatter pattern, which is uniform without a center. Variations are offered by line widths, spacing, colored backgrounds, paper materials, formats, the relief of the foil overlays. Not every sheet is the same, but all follow a plan and intuition. A natural process, which is also reflected in this.
Detail of the work: Kukla - WSF series
Michael Kukla also follows a self-imposed set of rules. Starting from the edge of the sheet, he draws uneven hexagons with a mechanical pencil, which line up like honeycombs. The picture is developed from individual decisions without a pre-screen, a billowing structure in which the lines undulate back and forth and are not straight or lawful in the strict sense. By marking a third of the hexagons on the inside in color, the perception changes to a spatial grid effect.
He has developed this process further with more organic ovaloids, which are contoured, but remain isolated without edges and in the layering like relief-like scales. Because the elements do not touch, the ridges between the ovals are also not uniform. Almost calligraphic thickenings and thinnings of the ridge surfaces determine the surface development.
Now, when such punched-out-looking areas are superimposed on each other in openwork sheets, a space of depth is created that becomes stronger as the standing part gradually darkens in shades of blue or green. The artist must act, as in a painting on reverse glass, whose foremost parts must first be painted. Here it is necessary to consider which openings are left over when overlays are added. The layering must leave room, like Jackson Pollock, who added drop lines in different colors. The works are thought from the end. Accurate and fine-tuned to gap, the works have hints of biologism and closeness to nature without becoming Art Nouveau. They are not really technical, although there is also something artificial in what is created in the works.
