Oltre il nero – a cycle of works from 1993

„Can dark materials like charcoal, volcanic ash, and anthracite sustain a light field? They can, at least, ignite and heighten bright colours. And many kinds of black materials give an effect of depth that seems to draw in our haptic vision in an almost physical way. The saturated black of ivory black has this dual power. It is anything but lacking in steresis or dead in Kandinsky’s sense; it is lively and bespeaks colour. Paired with black materials from another source – charcoal, volcanic ash, marsh soil – it leads oltre il nero (beyond black) to unsuspected worlds of colour.“

Elmar Hertrich

quoted from: Elmar Hertrich “From Van de Velde to Dirnaichner. On Several intersections between Elemental Pictorial Thought in Modernism and Views of Nature in Antiquity” in: Helmut Dirnaichner, ante mare et terras, artist’s books 1979-2001, catalog of artist’s books edited by Annette Reich, curated by Institut für moderne Kunst Nuremberg 2001.
English translation by Steven Lindberg