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Uncertain Harmonies

Kevin Laycock

School of Design, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK

Introduction

In common with Kandinsky and Klee, Laycock has been concerned with analysing the correspondences between music and the visual image. As early as 1992 he was using a grid-like structure to echo the bars of sheet music, while patterned touches of colour suggested the mood and complex interplay of symphonic music. Like the painters who briefly came under Apollinaire’s Orphist banner, Laycock has often used high-keyed, complementary colours to achieve maximum visual impact and vibrancy, painting over a white gesso ground for even greater luminosity. He has consistently produced work in series, exploring a range of approaches through which the principles of musical composition can be adapted to the creation of abstract paintings.

Laycock’s most recent series of paintings, Uncertain Harmonies, takes its title from the composer György Ligeti’s comments on his composition Ramifications for String Orchestra – Nocturnal Landscapes, written in 1968–69. Ligeti described how the string sections were tuned separately a quarter tone apart, creating an ‘uncertain harmony’. The idea of uncertainty as a compositional principle seemed particularly appealing. Ligeti’s comments led the artist to begin a new series of work looking specifically at the theory of harmony in Western music and particularly at the use of cadence as a structural device.

As in Laycock’s previous series, all of the paintings have been worked on at the same time. Layers of colour have been built up, each one in response to what has gone before. Selected areas of the paintings have been sanded down to reveal the ‘archaeology’ of the image, often so vigorously that the paper is completely worn away. A very recent development is the introduction of laser cutting to further enliven the surface of the painting.

Images

These can be viewed either as:

Individual images (via thumbnails on the left) or as a
Slideshow

In the slideshow click on the right-hand side of the images (or press keyboard N) to view the next image in the gallery, or click on the left-hand side of the images (or press keyboard P) to view the previous image.

A gallery catalogue (38 KB) can also be downloaded in PDF format.