Lot 627 N

Since the 1970s, Joseph Marioni has been developing monochrome paintings in which he strives to visualize the full expressiveness of colour. His work is decisively influenced by the Abstract Expressionists, especially Clyfford Still, Mark Rothko and Barnett Newman, but also by the minimalist art of Brice Marden and Robert Ryman.
What is special about Marioni's works is their unmistakable colourfulness, but also the application of colour, which almost gives the works an object-like character. The artist mixes his colours himself with pigments to determine the correct transparency and density of the colour. He then applies the acrylic paint diluted with water in several layers on linen, using brushes, paint rollers or his hands. The works are always hanging from the studio wall so that the paint can flow down the object while it is being applied in a liquid state.
'For me, colour is in a functional relationship with human emotions. My particular concern with regard to colour is directed towards its perceptible expression of feeling and how the concrete object of the picture can become a place for this perception. I sometimes say that I would like to do for colour what Pollock did for the line. I would like to free colour from its limitations. Monochrome painting makes colour more accessible, it has a greater potential to deepen the perception of colour, and I believe it has to do with emotional intimacy. […] There is a wide field of colour perception that is just beginning to take painting by storm. I see monochrome painting as its beginning.' (Joseph Marioni and Hannelore Kersting, Ein Dialog, in: Hannelore Kersting (ed.), Joseph Marioni, Painter, exhib.cat. Städtisches Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach 1994, p.28f).