拍品专文
Shining in burnished gold, royal blue and brilliant crimson, Gabriel Orozco's Samurai Tree paintings are considered by the artist to be especially successful, merging technological precision with organic growth to hypnotic effect. Inspired by the mathematic logic behind the game of chess, Samurai Tree 1V is a visual manifestation of the physical movement of the pieces. Orozco combines a methodical process with poetic sensibility to represent the mental reasoning behind the rules of play, illustrating the infinite number of possibilities and strategies the game presents. The sequencing of colour, for instance, is based on the 'L' shaped movement of the knight, a character Orozco identifies as a Samurai - until every section of the canvas was covered. The mesmerising, illusive effect of this combination of mathematical meticulousness and probability was the celebrated subject of Orozco's installation at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, in 2009.
An examination of the multitude of possibilities inherent within a defined structure, the template for Samurai Tree 1V was realised using two rigorous systems - one for the colours and one for the diameters of the circles. The composition originates from a single central point around which a circle was drawn and then divided into quadrants. Orozco then extended this process, creating the sense of motion that emanates from the centre of the canvas, as well as the sense of gravity which pulls down a vertical axis to the bottom. Systematically varying the size of the circles until he found a composition that he felt was complete, Orozco has orchestrated space and movement in Samurai Tree 1V to lead the viewer on a compelling journey of perpetual visual discovery.
An elegant application of this logic to the greater logic of the natural world, in Samurai Tree 1V, Orozco evolves this structural diagram to relate to the organic symmetry in the growth of a tree. Speaking of the universality of this series, Orozco has said: 'I love the idea of how trees grow from a centre, how they also grow underground and on the ground from a center and a horizon and they start to develop all the branches. A tree is a metaphor for me.' (G. Orozco, quoted in Y. A. Bois, 'The Tree and the Knight', Gabriel Orozco, exh. cat., Museo del Palacio de Bellas Artes, Mexico City 2006, p. 269).
An examination of the multitude of possibilities inherent within a defined structure, the template for Samurai Tree 1V was realised using two rigorous systems - one for the colours and one for the diameters of the circles. The composition originates from a single central point around which a circle was drawn and then divided into quadrants. Orozco then extended this process, creating the sense of motion that emanates from the centre of the canvas, as well as the sense of gravity which pulls down a vertical axis to the bottom. Systematically varying the size of the circles until he found a composition that he felt was complete, Orozco has orchestrated space and movement in Samurai Tree 1V to lead the viewer on a compelling journey of perpetual visual discovery.
An elegant application of this logic to the greater logic of the natural world, in Samurai Tree 1V, Orozco evolves this structural diagram to relate to the organic symmetry in the growth of a tree. Speaking of the universality of this series, Orozco has said: 'I love the idea of how trees grow from a centre, how they also grow underground and on the ground from a center and a horizon and they start to develop all the branches. A tree is a metaphor for me.' (G. Orozco, quoted in Y. A. Bois, 'The Tree and the Knight', Gabriel Orozco, exh. cat., Museo del Palacio de Bellas Artes, Mexico City 2006, p. 269).