Untitled

The present lot, Jacob Kassay's Untitled, is representative of the artist's unique body of work: minimal in compositional form, yet expansive and intricate in legacy and interpretation. The artist's work is rooted in his technique. Canvases are first primed with acrylic paint, then plated with silver, and finally torched, blackening all areas left exposed. The resulting object, therefore combines complex man-made technological processes and one of the most basic elements in natural existence-fire.

Much like Robert Rauschenberg's White Paintings or the work of Marcel Duchamp before him, an integral component of Kassay's work is the notion of chance. Although the artist has taken painstaking measures to create these objects, so much of the audience's experience is not determined by the artist. The mirrored surfaces allow for a play of color, light and shape that is fleeting-the experience a viewer has can never be duplicated, revealing that audience interaction is perhaps the most integral medium in Kassay's Untitled.