LACUNA DRAWINGS
LACUNA DRAWINGS
« I had started a series of drawings in 1949-1950 that I wanted to develop at all costs. Especially since at that time I was on the trail of the end of Mondrian’s life. I was in close contact with what I had received from him, with the philosophy of the horizontal and the vertical. That was what I was thinking about in 1951. I wanted to apply in myself the essence of what I had received. And through my vision, this had to be the poor way. The poorer the means, the richer the results. With pen in hand, this reflection led me to develop drawings in large format. What I called dessins à lacunes (lacuna drawings). (…) There was this discovery of the lacunas, of what the pen doesn’t touch and yet starts to speak. What is not is more than what it claims to be. I received this blow suddenly, like a stroke. »
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Michel Seuphor, Une vie à angle droit (page 105)
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Manuscript Dessins à lacuna drawings with horizontal lines Seuphor, 13 february 1973« I had started a series of drawings in 1949-1950 that I wanted to develop at all costs. Especially since at that time I was on the trail of the end of Mondrian’s life. I was in close contact with what I had received from him, with the philosophy of the horizontal and the vertical. That was what I was thinking about in 1951. I wanted to apply in myself the essence of what I had received. And through my vision, this had to be the poor way. The poorer the means, the richer the results. With pen in hand, this reflection led me to develop drawings in large format. What I called dessins à lacunes (lacuna drawings). (…) There was this discovery of the lacunas, of what the pen doesn’t touch and yet starts to speak. What is not is more than what it claims to be. I received this blow suddenly, like a stroke. »
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Michel Seuphor, Une vie à angle droit (page 105)
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Manuscript Dessins à lacuna drawings with horizontal lines Seuphor, 13 february 1973« Between the haughty style of Mondrian and the spasmodic arabesque of Pollock, at equal distance from each other, I stretch my horizontal line very calmly. I repeat it and multiply it, always freehand and slowly, thus creating the ranges of the endless modulations where I am at home. I can dream there, I can play there. I sometimes invite humor, I let my fantasy go. But this freedom is unceasingly controlled by the measure of the same horizontal line and its calm trace. I like this peaceful disposition. Nothing can break it or corrupt it. It is mine for as long as I am. Within this peace I can take risks, I am allowed to follow all my fantasies, the very discipline of my technique puts order in it, suppresses excesses. »
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Michel Seuphor,Le jeu de je, 1976
« Between the haughty style of Mondrian and the spasmodic arabesque of Pollock, at equal distance from each other, I stretch my horizontal line very calmly. I repeat it and multiply it, always freehand and slowly, thus creating the ranges of the endless modulations where I am at home. I can dream there, I can play there. I sometimes invite humor, I let my fantasy go. But this freedom is unceasingly controlled by the measure of the same horizontal line and its calm trace. I like this peaceful disposition. Nothing can break it or corrupt it. It is mine for as long as I am. Within this peace I can take risks, I am allowed to follow all my fantasies, the very discipline of my technique puts order in it, suppresses excesses. »
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Michel Seuphor,Le jeu de je, 1976