Composition

Description

The middle of 'Composition' by the Russian artist Serge Poliakoff is formed by an angular white field set against a black plane with corners and curves. Around this there are planes of different coloured greens that fit together. These fields are clearly outlined, and the colours determine the forms of the fields. They are composed of several layers of grainy paint, which has been applied fairly thickly with a palette knife and the underlying colours remain visible through the top layer.

In 1923 Serge Poliakoff settled in Paris. Influenced by Kandinsky and Delaunay, he gradually developed an abstract method of painting, and from 1938 his work was completely abstract. He constructed balanced compositions of planes that fit together. Sometimes there was a central core, as in this composition, and sometimes there were different cores. At the edges of the painting, the planes are cut off so that it looks as though it is part of a larger whole. Poliakoff explained: “While figurative art remains within the framework of the painting, abstract art extends beyond the framework in order to create a cosmos.” Like Bazaine, Bissière and Manessier, Poliakoff is included in the École de Paris. These artists believed in the structural unity of man and his environment and considered a painting to be the personification of the essence of the universe.

In Poliakoff’s work, the colour of the planes determines the image as much as the form. Sometimes he used colours which were strongly contrasting, and sometimes his work was almost monochrome, but the colours of the planes were always chosen in such a way that they were in balance. The atmosphere exuded by Poliakoff’s work is one of harmony and silence. He said: “When a painting is silent it has succeeded for me. Some of my paintings start with a great tumult and they are explosive, but I am not satisfied until I’ve brought silence to a work.” However, this silence is a vibrating spiritual silence, a silence which encourages meditation. Like traditional Russian icons, Poliakoff’s paintings are concerned with the supernatural. The unity which he achieved in an image by ensuring that the colours, planes and materials are subtly interrelated can be viewed as a reflection of a cosmic unity.

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