“Capriccio” denotes a deliberate, lustful violation of rules in music, literature and the visual arts – the imaginative, playful transgression of academic norms without completely overriding the norm.
Capricci is also the name of Michael Conrads’ annual edition: four small-format oil paintings, conceived as a series, which play through the same formal idea in different colours and formulations. The geometric grid of all four works forms the basis on which it is circumvented in a variety of ways. The rhombs are sometimes clearly circumscribed, sometimes in dissolution. In many places streaks run across the coloured surfaces. Sometimes the pastose layer of paint breaks open, sometimes the canvas shines through the watercolour-like applied paint. Different materials such as spray, oil, tape, varnish or bitumen and “unsuitable” colour combinations create different effects. In this way the initial system of the geometric rhombic pattern is changed with a gestural language and deliberately incorporated “errors” towards an organically condensed final result.
Annual edition 2008
1–4
Capricci 1-4, 2008
Dispersion, oil, tape and bitumen on linen
50 x 40 cm
4 unique works; sign., dat.
Out of stock