Kazimira Rachfal's Exhibition at Janet Kurnatowski Gallery Prompts Essay on Painting Orientation
Kazimira Rachfal's exhibition "Space is Big... Really Big" runs at Janet Kurnatowski Gallery through April 26, 2015. An essay published in 2013 by David Cohen describes his personal dilemma in determining the correct orientation of a Rachfal painting lent to him while writing about the artist. The unsigned work, featuring a blue shape on black ground, offers no official clues about its intended placement. Cohen experiments with hanging the painting at various angles on a Brooklyn-made steel staircase in his apartment, comparing this creative misplacement to Picasso hanging a Matisse askew. The painting's abstract composition resists easy categorization within contemporary art dichotomies like provisional versus resolved painting. Its handcrafted surface shows deliberate execution without expressionism. When displayed diagonally, the work evokes Malevich's iconic corner placement in his 1915 Exhibition 0,10. The orientation ambiguity keeps viewers engaged, allowing multiple interpretations of the geometric form.
Key facts
- Kazimira Rachfal's exhibition "Space is Big... Really Big" is on view at Janet Kurnatowski Gallery
- The exhibition runs through April 26, 2015
- David Cohen wrote an essay in 2013 about orientation dilemmas with a Rachfal painting
- The unsigned painting features a blue shape on a black ground
- Cohen experimented with hanging the painting at 45-degree angles on a Brooklyn-made steel staircase
- Picasso reportedly hung a Matisse painting at an irregular angle to view it afresh
- Malevich's 1915 Exhibition 0,10 featured a painting placed in a corner like traditional Russian icons
- The painting's abstract composition resists categorization within contemporary art dichotomies
Entities
Artists
- Kazimira Rachfal
- David Cohen
- Picasso
- Matisse
- Malevich
Institutions
- Janet Kurnatowski Gallery
- artcritical
Locations
- Brooklyn
- United States