Jaromír Novotný [*1974 · CZ]. Farbstudie, 2018.

Silver gelatin process, bw baryta photopaper. Unique works

For this project, I work with a basic architectural structure of weight and support, process of surrounding a core, filling up a given space, finding proportions etc. I work with photo chemicals directly on the surface of photo paper, with tape and brushes, in a quite painterly way. There is no negative. The works are not prints. The whole paper is worked on under light, no dark room, it is lit evenly allover. The colour differences (of bw paper) are caused mostly by different concentrations of a developer liquid. Single works are variations on one composition. I am not interested in exact repetition, I do not measure, every work is started again anew and made as a live process, including mistakes, errors (stains, tearings etc…). I have a certain plan and expectations before I begin, to try to obtain certain hues and colour combinations. But, as the paper is totally overexposed, I do not see real, final colours until the whole thing is put in fixer, washed and dried. I like this combination of plan and chance. A combination of an attempt to put something in order and an impossibility to manage how the process would end up. Unexpectability within exact form. Colour appearing on bw photo paper. I was thinking about colour theories (Albers), which go through some organic, erratic process. I also was thinking about how perfection of Bauhaus’ ideas inevitably merges with features like materials’ aging (yellowing paper, fading etc…), changing how we perceive particular objects now, as visual information. To look at these three works as if they were bad (faded, failed) reproductions is ok, too. I like the uncertainty arising from the strange detached colour scheme – can I believe that these are what they are on them own, or are they a fading image of something else? A4 is a bit difficult for me to deal with. So, first thing I did with every paper was to make the format shorter – hence the white stripe on the bottom. It is not part of the composition, but at the same time it is, because it makes it fixed in certain position on the A4 format, as if on a book page.

Currently all produced pieces sold. Please contact us for details.
1.000 € net