Adolf Fleischmann

Pure and Dispassionate #413, 1963

Adolf Fleischmann’s interest in Piet Mondrian’s idealist pictorial concept of horizontal-vertical order as a fundamental expression of life and the vibrant movement of the color is shown in Pure and Dispassionate #413. Parallel colored lines with similar color identity are seen to bunch together, forming interconnected, vibrant surfaces. Here color and lineament appear distinct. In this way the coming and going of color, is controlled and balanced by the size and number of vertical colored bars alone. Fleischmann develops further Mondrian’s pictorial interplay of balance and forces between line, quantity and quality of color in order to give his composition rhythm and a musical quality—it is no coincidence that he often uses titles like ‘opus’ or ‘fugue.’ Fleischmann opens up the monochrome areas with parallel bands or stripes, so that the front and back planes of the picture seem to oscillate in relation to each other. This kinetic movement of color explains why Fleischmann’s work is often characterized as Op Art.