Edition of 30 plus 3 APs
Signed and numbered on the front, sold unframed.

The process-led practise of layering paint, the creation of depth and flatness through concealment and the sculptural dimension of overpainting are defining elements of Chris Succo’s work. The artist works in a reduced palette, such as the black and – dominantly – white of his ongoing ZigZag Paintings or his most well-known series, the White Paintings. He arrives at these by overpainting a background and allowing only flashes of a first layer of painting to be seen on the surface.

Formally, Succo’s work recalls writing or calligraphy, a characteristic that evinces the significant influences which poetry and music play, along with other media ranging from installation to photography, in his multifaceted oeuvre. Conceptually, his work takes root in the larger narrative framework of cultural history: literature, film, music and indeed autobiography all come into this, though the references are often oblique, recognizable more in the titles than the compositions. Familiar with screen-printing, he has frequently used the medium on canvas in his unique works, employing the inherent qualities of the technique as an expression of his artistic language.

Three Screens is just that – three colours in five print runs created this print on heavyweight watercolour paper. The three individual silkscreen layers are painted onto the films and printed successively, in a sequence of neon orange, white and very dark violet, creating a dense image, not unlike his paintings in method and appearance. The repeated overprinting heightens this effect to the point of favouring compression over precision, which increases the painterly quality. The print is like his current body of paintings in that it exemplifies the rich conceptual layers embedded within the individual works, using abstract gestures as the connective thread.

Photo Credit: Nick Ash
Text Credit: Honor Westmacott / Courtesy of Handsiebdruckerei Editionen