AbAbout the estate
1800s
Title
1800, 1801, 1802, 1803, 1804, 1805, 1806, 1807, 1808, 1809, 1810, 1811, 1812
1800, 1801, 1802, 1803, 1804, 1805, 1806, 1807, 1808, 1809, 1810, 1811, 1812
2018
Media
Enamel on canvas
Enamel on canvas
Dimensions
60 x 60cm
Series
12
60 x 60cm
Series
12
Remarks
“The late Jaan Poldaas (1948-2018) was a paradigmatic figure in the field of conceptual art. Known for his precision and rigor, color has been the hallmark of his unique practice from early on. Unusual for a conceptual artist, Poldaas was a painter. He is known for his keen early interest in the semiotics of color, as well as for his exploration of the frontiers of artistic autonomy by sharing authorship with abstruse mathematical formulas, and especially with chance.
Mystery surrounds the final 1800 works exacerbated by the fact that the series represents a departure for the artist. Each picture, [...] chromatic ‘personalities’ through dynamic juxtapositions, is structurally identical with four squares separated by a broad horizontal bar crossing a vertical one, creating the illusion of depth through superimposition with the horizontal bar on top of the vertical. The spatial play of composition in the last works was not a typical feature of Poldaas’ earlier work, which emphasized the flatness of the picture plane and the push/pull of various color tonalities. Color is treated differently in the horizontal bars—black, red, dark green, light green, fuchsia or yellow—than in the verticals, which the artist has limited mostly to white, never black, but occasionally yellow, red, or in single cases, dark green, purple and aqua. The composition alternates between forming a two-tone cross or separating the vertical bar into two rectangles by giving each divided section a separate color.
This emphatic horizontal and vertical organization of the paintings underscores the binary orientation of the four resulting squares, indeed of any square. Moreover, the works bear similarities to flags, some of them identifiable, although the colors were composed by chance. We know that Poldaas used dice and playing cards to determine the arrangement of the colors in each painting, but information about the palette for these works did not survive him. The resulting riddle does not diminish the fascination of the last series; on the contrary. At once a summation of his corpus and a radical departure, Poldaas’ last works toy with spatial illusion using both color and composition, albeit within strict parameters, which is consistent with his life-long practice. The unexpected complexity, playfulness, and wit of these bold, last works, compounded by their mystery, leave us with the impression of an intellectually adventurous artist who died in mid-sentence.”
–Mark Mayer, 2025
Mystery surrounds the final 1800 works exacerbated by the fact that the series represents a departure for the artist. Each picture, [...] chromatic ‘personalities’ through dynamic juxtapositions, is structurally identical with four squares separated by a broad horizontal bar crossing a vertical one, creating the illusion of depth through superimposition with the horizontal bar on top of the vertical. The spatial play of composition in the last works was not a typical feature of Poldaas’ earlier work, which emphasized the flatness of the picture plane and the push/pull of various color tonalities. Color is treated differently in the horizontal bars—black, red, dark green, light green, fuchsia or yellow—than in the verticals, which the artist has limited mostly to white, never black, but occasionally yellow, red, or in single cases, dark green, purple and aqua. The composition alternates between forming a two-tone cross or separating the vertical bar into two rectangles by giving each divided section a separate color.
This emphatic horizontal and vertical organization of the paintings underscores the binary orientation of the four resulting squares, indeed of any square. Moreover, the works bear similarities to flags, some of them identifiable, although the colors were composed by chance. We know that Poldaas used dice and playing cards to determine the arrangement of the colors in each painting, but information about the palette for these works did not survive him. The resulting riddle does not diminish the fascination of the last series; on the contrary. At once a summation of his corpus and a radical departure, Poldaas’ last works toy with spatial illusion using both color and composition, albeit within strict parameters, which is consistent with his life-long practice. The unexpected complexity, playfulness, and wit of these bold, last works, compounded by their mystery, leave us with the impression of an intellectually adventurous artist who died in mid-sentence.”
–Mark Mayer, 2025