Painting as a science, that is, minus everything that could be interpreted into it. Nothing representational, nothing that could trigger associations with the audience, no metaphysics, but full control. Only form and color and light (relationships). Painting as an experimental arrangement. Strictly according to a once fixed concept: in the center a sharply defined upright bar, all around broad emphatically executed brushstrokes. The sober surrounded by the gestural; the prudent next to the impulsive. The timeless meets the fleeting and enters into a lasting bond. A moment becomes eternity, opening the possibility to investigate how the two antagonists correspond. Painting under laboratory conditions.

In acrylic and oil on cotton, the painter Cigdem Aky (*1989, Munich) combines the three elements of depth, structure and color tone, creating autonomous color spaces that are precise in their effect precisely because of the absence of any reference possibilities. Here, the absence of reference leads to unambiguity; each work conveys a precisely determined feeling. The combination of a set geometric element with gestural components leads to a series of unpredictable dialogues. Each work is an experiment with an open-ended result. With her application of paint, Aky sets in motion a process whose further course she cannot and does not want to control. She leaves color tones to themselves, which then study, evaluate, and perpetuate each other.

Aky's concept of varying a certain setting again and again and thus exploring the possibilities, limits and conditions of a system is reminiscent of experimental arrangements in the field of music, such as Johann Sebastian Bach's "Art of the Fugue" or the "Well-Tempered Clavier". Here, a constant musical theme is successively explored in ever different keys. Through the sheer endless variation, what emerges beyond material, structure and concept and hovers over it all, setting the tone: a characteristic combinatorial essence. An extract of essence and effect. In her series of experiments, the artist pursues philosophy with the brush. Cigdem Aky paints meaning.

Hansjörg Fröhlich