Black Disfiguration

by Ondřej Rypáček

Artist’s Statement

Infinite Folds

Imagine a point in an infinite distance behind an infinite perfect plane. You moving towards it. What do you perceive? No progress. Infinity is infinitely deep and absolutely obtuse at the same time. No progress is possible. Nothing can be added to infinity to make it bigger. Rypáček's obtuse, abstract oil paintings balance intentionally on the edge of figuration and abstraction to create such a sense of movement with no progress.

The intensely coloured and meticulously layered works suggest spaces, structures, faces, and figures in the world beyond the surface that invite further exploration. However, upon inspection, they give nothing away. A shroud of sometimes calm, sometimes violent monotony of the layers closer to the surface implies a world beyond. The textures have a hidden rhythm and logic which contribute, together with the rhythm of the colours, to the sensation of a movement towards something well defined. But the secret is never given away.

The process of painting in Rypáček's practice consists of many folds. “Folds to infinity” is what Deleuze calls the essence of the Baroque. It begins with making the paint. In the old hand process of making paint, the ground material is mixed with oil and spread over a glass pane, then collected and folded with a palette knife, then spread again and folded again until each pigment particle is surrounded by oil. The canvas is folded literally around the edges of the stretcher bars. Then, it is sealed and primed, then the first layer of paint is layered over the canvas. The first layer induces a reaction in the artist, and the next layer is put down. The paint is smeared and folded over itself. Sometimes, new layers are added over previously dried ones. If infinity of time were possible, it would take shape in an infinitely layered painting. It would be infinitely thick and take infinite time to paint and infinite time to comprehend. Is there a finite representation of the infinity of such repetition?