Michael Venezia, Untitled, 1971

1971

Medium

Aluminum pigment, acrylic and enamel paint on canvas

Dimensions

239 × 239 cm

Status

In Gallery Collection

Collect24 Art ID

C24-156161

Michael Venezias large-format black canvas Untitled from 1971 features seven even spray marks from either side of the canvas, which are reduced in the center of the picture to a metallic mist of pigment that lies on the dark, monochrome surface. Venezia used an emulsion of aluminum pigments and acrylic paint to achieve this, which he applied with a spray gun to the oversized canvas flat and before stretching it onto the stretcher frame. In Untitled, the spray markings continue outside the classical picture surface over the side edges of the wide stretcher frame - the painting thus acquires, in addition to the painterly quality of the spray paint, an object-like, almost plastic dimension. This effect is intensified by the aluminum pigments used, whose appearance is altered by the ambient light and which intervene in the viewer's space through their reflective properties.