Welcome back to the Stanczak Color Quarterly. This newsletter celebrates the work of seminal Op-Artist Julian Stanczak, honoring his rigorous investigation—and enduring love—of color. We're happy to present this 2nd issue, which invites you to explore Brisk, 1980.
Read on to discover recent exhibitions, read about Stanczak in the press, and to take a glimpse back into the artist's studio.
Stanczak mixed 16 different hues for this square painting from 1980, which is one of his ‘color grid’ canvases. Although the color shifts are not always easy to see, the painting has eight blues that go from a powdery, light blue at the edges of the canvas to a deep ultramarine in the center. These blues are delimited by contrasting gradients, also consisting of eight hues, going from pink on the edges to white in the middle.
The low contrast between the colors on the painting’s periphery makes the pinks appear to hover like a soft, warm haze. Meanwhile, in the center of the painting, strong contrasts between the ultramarine and white produce a throbbing, pulsating effect, especially when the painting is seen at close range. From a distance, however, the contrasting colors reconcile, giving the painting the appearance of having a large, almost monochromatic, center—an illusion that is dispelled upon closer examination.
The above details of Brisk (photographed at Diane Rosenstein Gallery in Los Angeles during Julian Stanczak: The Light Inside, February 5–April 2, 2022) highlight Stanczak's geometric precision and reveal his layering technique. Stanczak's meticulous lines and careful chromatic choices produce a canvas which glows with radiant light.
In her Artillery Magazine review of the exhibition at Diane Rosenstein Gallery, Ezrha Jean Black describes this historic series of Stanczak's canvasses from 1972–1987 as "op-minimalist mappings." She writes, "Stanczak’s color—always adventurous—is nevertheless slightly counter-intuitive, always catching the viewer slightly off-guard." Read more here. Then, see The Light Inside in context at the Diane Rosenstein Gallery in the video walkthrough, below.
Stanczak's Succession, 1980-2013, emantes light - Barbara Stanczak explains how Julian Stanczak carefully balanced 30 different colors to create the painting’s luminous effect and writes about why this work remains one of her favorites. In the essay, she details two enduring goals of Stanczak’s artistic practice: achieving “color melt-down” and “metamorphosis.”
A new essay explores how Stanczak created the warm, radiant glow of Green Light, 1973. “In Green Light, neither shapes nor colorants fight for individual recognition; rather, they are all subservient to the filtration of warm light. ” —Barbara Stanczak on Green Light, 1973. Click to read the full essay.
Welcome back to the Stanczak Color Quarterly, the newsletter celebrating the work of seminal Op Artist and master colorist Julian Stanczak. Read on to discover more about Chase, 1976–77, and to learn more about recent Stanczak exhibitions and news. Chase shows four curving columns, divided into pairs of two. The pairs appear to be painted using two different sets of colors. However, within every column, Stanczak applied the same colors in the same order—with only one exception. In a new essay, Barbara Stanczak shares the colors used (showing the original color swatch) and details Julian Stanczak's method for effecting the dramatic visual color shifts we see on the canvas.
Welcome back to the Stanczak Color Quarterly, the newsletter celebrating the work of seminal Op Artist and master colorist Julian Stanczak. This issue features a 1998 work, Low Sound. At first glance, Low Sound appears to be painted in black and white. A closer look reveals the painting's predominant color to be purple (or, to be precise, two different purples). “Low Sound looks deceptively simple upon first encounter, but the longer the viewer spends with the painting, the more they experience a number of magical touches. ” —Barbara Stanczak on Low Sound
