The Paintings of Petra Czysewsky

The vibrant fields of different hues in Petra Czysewsky’s paintings create colour spaces that attract the viewer with astonishing emotional power. Her use of colour is both calming and evocative. At first glance, most of her large format works do not seem to offer the viewer a point of entry. They are monochromatic and free of figurative references. Yet this is how Petra Czysewsky’s art opens up a perspective onto painting that illuminates all its delicate qualities. The wordless dialogue with the viewer unfolds – through associations, moods, feelings.

Petra Czysewsky’s works are loaded with an internal tension – a result of her artistic process. She builds up her subtle paintings layer by layer. Her multicoloured 'underpainting' covers the entire canvas, and the direction a painting will take is already crystalized at this point in her process. The work’s ultimate expression has been determined. Czysewsky then individually applies layer upon layer of thin glaze, each forming connections with the expressive traces of colour beneath it. Gradually each subsequent glaze further supresses the expressive colours such that only subtle gradients remain. The painting appears to be monochrome. In the end, the painting process is concealed by the completed work.

Multiple colour field paintings form a self-contained whole. At the same time, each image is also an independent, stand-alone work. Within a production cycle, the artist creates various paintings that can be combined with one another. At first, all combinatory possibilities are open. The panels can be placed next to each other on a vertical or horizontal axis, or at particular distances from one another. The background provided by the installation context is always a deciding factor in the presentation. Each installation option establishes one of many changing relations between the fields of colour. These connections generate a completely new work.