MARC SCHEPS

The ANASCULPTURE, alias BLACK HOLES ART,

by LEO CONTINI LAMPRONTI

LCL proposes a canonical and yet unprecedented  alternative to the  representation of the three-dimensional reality, by painting through the development and the application of his idea of the "anasculpture".

Since the beginning of the twentieth century several artists elaborated new ideas designed to create  spatial depth without taking advantage of the perspective rules inherited by the Renaissance. They soon found themselves confronted both with the redefinition of the relationship between sculpture and painting and with the substance itself of these two domains.  Both the two-dimensional feature of painting as well as  the three-dimensional feature of the sculpture were broken and a close dialogue was established that approached these two domains.

Later we shall return to  this issue, yet it is precisely from this point that LCL will undertake his research, by proposing a new model that allows for the combination of two and three dimensional artistic expressions within a symbiosis which constitutes the basis of a work referring both to modern and to classical manifestations. How does anasculpture place itself within the context of contemporary art? Before we answer this question, we will say that contemporary painting has not found any new mode to artfully represent the three-dimensional space, whilst at the opposite side of artistic research, the Duchamps tradition of the object takes advantage of the presentation of the actual reality, by means of its own consistency, material, space... This dichotomy within the contemporary artistic creation has left an empty space  which LCL perceived and attempts to penetrate with his anasculpture. Let us try to describe the principles and the elaborated procedure of this artistic enterprise which achieves such a surprising and clear quality of images.

First of all the representation of a volume (be it a human body, an object) in itself, i.e. regardless of its being integrated within a space, is dealt with. According to its direction, the light illuminating the volume will provide it with a proper shadow  (the shadow generated by its own shape). The contour of the volume is traced on a bidimensional surface and the illusion of its  three-dimensionality obtained by the representation of its proper shadow. Subsequently a multitide of circles virtually spread on the surface of the volume, will become ellipses featuring different sizes and elongations, according to the laws of geometry. These ellipses are then cut out from the bidimensional surface,  whose continuity results therefore broken (*)  The illusion of this volume is achieved by its proper shadow and by the elliptical lacunae:  i.e.: by a double negation. During this procedure  the "painting" has lost its bidimensional continuity whilst the "sculpture" is still lacking volume, yet the artifact gives a strong illusion of a plastic reality which is simultaneously bi-and three-dimensional. 

In the third step an additional surface featuring enhanced light absorbtion properties  (**) , is mounted behind the active ansculptural plate,  parallel to and a certain distance from it.  The artifact acquires then a true spatial dimension. It allows us to discover the inner space of our represented volume through the cut-out elliptical lacuanae and provides the physical depth to the lacunae which is required to define them into "black holes",as referred to by LCL.

The anasculpture, alias Black Holes Art, is neither  a sculpture nor a painting: out of this double negation LCL creates a new mode, enabling him to produce an artistic work through the analysis of the mechanisms of composite perception when it acquires the spatial reality.

Concerning large size works, LCL considers as well the possibility for the observer to stimulate an active dialogue with his creation, by placing the fairly transparent active plate at a distance from the "b(l)ackground" that allows a person to go through them. The resulting interaction between the work and a human and dynamic presence displays a further surprising property of anasculpture  and  provide us with a deeper understanding of the spatial conception of LCL. 

Amongst  the references of LCL we will only evoke two examples: (1) the sculptures-paintings of Archipenko: in 1919/20 he created works that simultaneously involve surface painting and volume shaping, paving the way to  future research. (2)  Fontana broke the continuity of the painted canvas starting in 1959, in his "spatial concepts" series,  disclosing a spatial depth behind an illusory bi-dimensionality. The Fontana work is generated by a negation as well: his great and liberating gesture shall inspire future generations. LCL starts from this notion, but he has the ambition of building a new vision of the reality of the world, an ability of evoking with force the presence of the real in all its manifestations devoid of copying allowances.  He started by a repertory of objetcs belonging to the realm of reality as well as human bodies, yet his mode enabled him to develop several topological configurations related to theoretical models as well as some surreal conceptions. LCL proposes to us a phenomenolgy of the perception (M.Merleau Ponty); he could indeed subscribe to the statement:

"We can no longer persist within this alternative of understanding nothing about the subject and understanding nothing about the object. We must rediscover the origin of the object at the very heart of own experience, that we describe the apparition of the existence and that we might comprehend paradoxically that it is for us by being for itself." (***)

It is in this perspective that the work by LCL corresponds to contemporary concerns, be it either philosophical or artistic. It is the merging of the perceptive analysis of the subject with the object that generates the work of art; it is the encounter of this view, coming from the depth of the soul and cruising through  space, with the object and its dwelling in its entirety. 

The work of LCL is the result of an analytical, systematic research during which the artist successfully exploits several scientific disciplines to answer the questions that he himself posed. However this rational attitude did not prevent him from using his intuition and his imagination which witness the whole of his work. A unique and captivating performance, with no concessions, which reveals a clearly defined vision, a permanent research and a creative urgency, offering to our view envisioned works which gratify our soul and our senses.

Marc Scheps is former director of Tel Aviv and Koln Museums of Art                                        

Translation from French of LCL, revised by prof. YishaiTobin of the Ben Gurion University.  

(*) LCL calls this surface pervaded with lacunae the "active anasculptural plate".

(**) the "b(l)ackground", a neologism indicating the black background of anasculptures.

(***) M.Merleau Ponty – The Phénoménology of Perception; Editions Gallimard 1969 – p.86