I will attempt to express my thoughts and impressions on viewing David’s ‘Blue Pictures’ in a few words. The working process obviously holds important significance for him. The fingers and hands replace the usual tools – one could describe them as finger-paintbrushes.
He paints pictures that make no attempt at precision but are rather on a permanent search for the unknown, for undiscovered territory. One never knows if one is in space, time, or the void.
It is a series of notes that has no interest in the production of an artistic sense of self.
Strikingly monochrome blue, almost consciously referring to the Monochrome Blues and action paintings of Yves Klein.
The blue colour defines space whereas the line goes through it.
The paintings are further charged by the self-imposed, very constrained field of possibilities. It is not easy to gesticulate on such a small scale but nevertheless the paintings are always on the verge of explosion, exposing their secrets. Compact, monochrome, simple. It is this minimalism that radiates a quiet poetry. With no elaboration, a further reduction of these means would be like an Y. Klein or K. Malevich painting.
Is colour for David an expression and stylistic device with which to depict atmospheres and impressions? Is it a quest for life, power and magic? Or more an attempt to make the spiritual aspect of art tangible?
The answer will be different every time, depending on the individual looking at the paintings.
Danos Papadopoulos
University of Aegean