Untitled (Epsilon #1)
Artist
Francis Celentano
MediumAcrylic, masonite
Dimensions84 x 216 in. (213.4 x 548.6 cm)
ClassificationsPainting
Credit LineSeattle City Light 1% for Art Portable Works Collection
Francis Celentano was born in Bronx, New York in 1928. Having already established his reputation in the arts on the East Coast, he moved to Seattle in 1966 to teach at the art school of the University of Washington, where he also furthered his painting career.
For over 30 years, Francis Celentano has made paintings composed entirely of narrow stripes of brilliant color that modulate in intensity and from hue to hue. “I am interested in creating dramatic visual compositions by means of manipulating various relationships between color and shape. . . I intend the painting to be the thing represented. By manipulating pigment in a certain way I generate color independent of how it appears in our familiar world of ambient light by removing the illusion of atmosphere, distance and shadow.”
“. . . in 1968, I became interested in color dynamics and studied the experiments and theories of M.E. Chevreul and others. It is then that I began my first air-brush paintings on plastic, cutting and rearranging them in a variety of sequences. The present work is an extension of this direction. Mathematical engineering of the arranged shapes is as important to the work as is the color.”
“The rational that drives me as an artist is the desire to express sensibility through visual form by a variety of spatial orderings and color orchestrations. I am engaged in composing works of art that create through their structure and color dramatic and/or subtle evocations whether they are paintings or sculptures.
“To this end, I have chosen to limit myself to orchestrating color and structure outside the tradition of figurative art so that they communicate only their own expressive attributes. This means that the viewer is invited to respond to the work as an end in itself without outside references. It is my hope that these works of art, whether they are paintings or sculpture, will provide by way of empathy to their form an intriguing expressive experience for the viewer.”
–Artist statement
This painting was originally executed as a mural commission for the Seattle City Light Building in 1975 by the Seattle Arts Commission. It became part of the Portable Collection when City Light moved.
For over 30 years, Francis Celentano has made paintings composed entirely of narrow stripes of brilliant color that modulate in intensity and from hue to hue. “I am interested in creating dramatic visual compositions by means of manipulating various relationships between color and shape. . . I intend the painting to be the thing represented. By manipulating pigment in a certain way I generate color independent of how it appears in our familiar world of ambient light by removing the illusion of atmosphere, distance and shadow.”
“. . . in 1968, I became interested in color dynamics and studied the experiments and theories of M.E. Chevreul and others. It is then that I began my first air-brush paintings on plastic, cutting and rearranging them in a variety of sequences. The present work is an extension of this direction. Mathematical engineering of the arranged shapes is as important to the work as is the color.”
“The rational that drives me as an artist is the desire to express sensibility through visual form by a variety of spatial orderings and color orchestrations. I am engaged in composing works of art that create through their structure and color dramatic and/or subtle evocations whether they are paintings or sculptures.
“To this end, I have chosen to limit myself to orchestrating color and structure outside the tradition of figurative art so that they communicate only their own expressive attributes. This means that the viewer is invited to respond to the work as an end in itself without outside references. It is my hope that these works of art, whether they are paintings or sculpture, will provide by way of empathy to their form an intriguing expressive experience for the viewer.”
–Artist statement
This painting was originally executed as a mural commission for the Seattle City Light Building in 1975 by the Seattle Arts Commission. It became part of the Portable Collection when City Light moved.
