Color Held in Bands
When do overlapping bands become a structure?
These seventeen works compare broad color divisions with the shorter bars, blocks and rounded forms inside them. Pale grounds make some crossings easy to read; dark fields give bright fragments a different weight. The closing chapter loosens the bands and leaves separate shapes suspended in open space.
Pale planes and sharp crossings
Begin with broad pale divisions. Small dark bars and colored crossings remain legible inside them, providing intervals without turning the whole surface into a regular grid.
Abstract #09
nnxyz
View artworkPale vertical bands descend through pink, gray and muted blue areas. Several dark horizontal lines cross near the lower middle, with a yellow upright passing through them. Their small intersection gives a point of reference within the softer surrounding divisions.
Abstract #12
nnxyz
View artworkPink and pale blue planes are crossed by thin orange bars and dark vertical strips. A rough light area interrupts the upper center. Look at how the narrow crossings stay legible inside much broader, softly edged bands.
Abstract #10
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View artworkBroad pale strips cross darker blue, gray and mauve fields. Small red, orange and blue blocks sit near these intersections, particularly in the lower half. Their sharper edges punctuate a surface whose larger boundaries remain blurred.
The dark low crossings give way to orange horizontals inside broader pink and blue planes.
Small colored blocks punctuate the softened planes rather than extending into long bars.
Abstract #29
nnxyz
View artworkTall muted bands are interrupted by short black horizontal marks near the upper and middle areas. Turquoise and orange crossings sit lower down. These small dark bars give the softer vertical divisions a sharper set of intervals.
Abstract #31
nnxyz
View artworkSeveral red horizontal bars cross pale upright bands near the center. Fine angular lines gather around their upper edges, with purple diagonal marks below. The clear red crossings hold their shape amid smaller, more irregular interruptions.
The small blocks give way to short black bars that interrupt tall muted bands.
Red crossings take the place of black bars and become more continuous across the pale uprights.
Structure in darker fields
Turn from pale bands to dark surrounds. Yellow, turquoise and orange fragments stand apart, while bars and uprights divide the space around them without fully enclosing it.
Abstract #14
nnxyz
View artworkYellow short bars interrupt a dark brown and muted red field. Pale upright shapes form an uneven central column, with smaller blue and cream patches below. The dark surround keeps these separate pieces legible without joining them into one continuous outline.
The pale ground darkens, leaving short yellow bars and a central light column easier to isolate.
Abstract #33
nnxyz
View artworkYellow block-like areas sit within dark crossing bars on a muted green field. A pink vertical shape interrupts the lower center. Compare the contained yellow patches with the longer yellow diagonal that travels beyond their boundaries.
Abstract #26
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View artworkDark purple and red areas are punctuated by bright turquoise blocks. Several upright strips divide the center, while shorter horizontal marks connect them. The blue patches become points of orientation inside the much darker surrounding field.
Yellow fragments enlarge into block-like patches held among dark crossings.
Turquoise patches replace the yellow blocks inside a darker red and purple arrangement.
Abstract #32
nnxyz
View artworkShort yellow and orange marks repeat across a dark magenta field. Pale crossing bands sit behind and between them. The repeated warm marks establish intervals, while their varied sizes and uneven alignments prevent a fixed pattern.
The isolated turquoise patches give way to repeated short orange and yellow marks across magenta.
Color at the boundaries
Bright patches accumulate and cross one another. Compare softened vertical divisions with pale planes and darker bars, then notice how rough edges change the continuity of a band.
Abstract #15
nnxyz
View artworkTurquoise vertical areas sit among yellow, red, pale pink and darker rectangular patches. Boundaries overlap and soften rather than forming a regular grid. Follow a single upright band to see where neighboring colors cover or interrupt it.
The short repeated marks broaden into overlapping turquoise, yellow and red upright areas.
Abstract #16
nnxyz
View artworkPale pink and white planes surround black bars and smaller yellow, orange and purple shapes. Several horizontal crossings tie the upper and lower areas together. The broad pale divisions leave room to notice the shorter marks embedded within them.
Abstract #17
nnxyz
View artworkBright blue, orange, green and pink marks accumulate around darker vertical divisions. Pale strokes interrupt the center and lower areas. The surface is densely occupied, but the uprights still provide a way to separate neighboring patches of color.
Broader pale planes interrupt the bright uprights, leaving smaller colored marks inside them.
The open pale planes fill with denser bright patches organized around dark uprights.
Abstract #20
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View artworkWide turquoise, pink and white marks cross black and yellow interruptions. Many edges are broken rather than smoothly bounded. The image offers bands of color, but their rough divisions keep the bands from becoming a settled pattern.
The upright organization loosens into wide turquoise and pale bands with visibly broken edges.
Shapes with room around them
The final works let separate shapes remain visible. Compare a loose built arrangement, two kinds of white interruption, rounded forms, and colored blocks separated by a pale ground.
Abstract #11
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View artworkOrange horizontal marks gather above pale green and yellow areas. Upright and descending lines connect several levels, while dark patches interrupt the lower corners. The image can suggest a built arrangement without settling into a specific building or place.
Broken bright bands become a looser arrangement of orange crossings and pale green areas.
Abstract #13
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View artworkA yellow field occupies the upper middle of green, pink and orange divisions. Broad white crossing marks gather lower down, accompanied by thin repeated lines. The two light areas provide different kinds of interruption: one nearly filled, the other visibly broken.
Abstract #30
nnxyz
View artworkA large pink-red rounded shape sits low in a pale field crossed by blue horizontal bands. A smaller outlined circle appears above and to the right. Their different sizes and positions make a contrast within the surrounding rectangular divisions.
The green areas become a stronger yellow field, with broken white crossings below it.
The white crossings give way to blue bands passing through a large pink-red rounded shape.
Abstract #49
nnxyz
View artworkA pink rectangular area and a green block sit apart on a pale ground. Smaller yellow and red-green shapes occupy the upper area, connected by fine crossing lines. The open spacing makes each colored shape legible before the connecting marks become apparent.
The broad bands separate into isolated pink and green blocks with fine lines between them.
One more look
Choose one boundary that looked firm and another that seemed to dissolve. How much of the structure depended on the colors on either side?