*1943 in New York City, NY (US), lived and worked until 2020 in New York City, NY (US), now in Mexico.
„Black is usually considered the absence of colour: it is severe and rigorous but this is only two facets of its many qualities. One of the reasons I am attracted to black is indeed its dichotomies. It is sophisticated and primitive, emotional and intellectual, it is a colour that everyone responds strongly to, in one way or another.” – Joan Witek
Joan Witek‘s works address our sensibilities directly and intensely: Strong and gentle, oppressive and expansive, clear and intangible, meditative and expressive, rational and emotional – all the contrasting qualities of black are expressed in her works.
Whether with wax crayon, oil
or acrylic paint – on parchment, plastic film or canvas: Joan Witek carefully calculates the respective specific features of her diverse materials, bestowing her works a powerful haptic appeal. We can almost feel the creased rice paper, the velvety pastel pencil, the buoyancy of the watercolours on the film, or the ink‘s absorption into soft handmade paper.
Not only in regard to colour but formally as well, the vitality of the works derives from a deliberate reduction of means: using clear, horizontally and vertically aligned structures and reduced forms – often just lines – Joan Witek focuses on the relationships between surface proportions, and between concentration, closedness and opening. Besides the fascinating references of macro- and microstructure, it is the interplay between geometrically developed structure and forms created by hand as well as those di- scovered via the paint and carrying material that makes her works so exciting and accessible.
Joan Witek borrows her picture titles from various sources – e.g. Transfigured Night after Robert Dehmel‘s poem Verklärte Nacht. The short titles often include a wealth of references, again like Transfigured Night, whose content refers to hope: it carries a lyrical rhythm and at the same time calls to mind Arnold Schönberg‘s setting of the poem. In this way, the titles are compatible with the intensity and multi-layered quality of the concrete works.
Juliane Rogge, translated by Lucinda Rennison