Emyr Williams

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The Nature of the Space

What is the nature of the space sought in an abstract colour painting?

In figurative art, a landscape creates a spatial distance through its very remit with the surface often used to bring it back into a closer engagement. A portrait or figure immediately creates a more human even intimate sense of space, however it can also distract as it can be “too recognisable”. Witness Matisse’s choice of subject matter in so many of his greatest colour works - internal spaces, fabric or furniture and a figure or figures, but with no great attention to subject matter driven depiction. A room, in this instance, is the ideal compromise, its natural space leans to the landscape (indeed Matisse often opened his windows and doors to the world in his paintings) providing room for the eye to move around in, plus a person in the room creates opportunities for coherent concrete forms and a counterpoint to the latent ambience or lack of drama in a domestic space, the fabric can add reasoning for more synthetic or unpredictable colour, too - a potentially heady cocktail of content awaits. This is the world of figuration in colour (especially in the hands of a superlative colourist such as Matisse). How can an abstract painting connect or match this on its own terms, though? That is a great challenge.