Pretentious Yet Pointless
The receding curves are closed in a tribute to stereometric construction. Such forms, delicately modulated, create a strong interplay of forces. The endless curves are closed in a homage to abstract art. The major feature of constructive colour theory is that it enables the artist to define form in terms of space, rather than mass. Sol Aris has not supplied the price of this painting. Such forms, both monumental and poetic, create disarmingly strong feelings. Sol Aris has not commented on the aspect ratio of this picture. The layers of approaching curves are forever engraved in a parody of celebration.
The artist employs a limited canvas to contain the colours, which therefore subsist in a world of their own making. The shapes in this doodle, despite appearing disarmingly simple at first glance, create in the mind duty, responsibility, discipline and work... The arena of contrasting tone and hue of Sol Aris's other works are clearly visible here, but in a different form. A particularly contentious aspect of this drawing is the world of the senses of smell and sound contrasting strongly with the arena of contrasting tone and hue so clearly visible.
A particularly contentious aspect of this particular sketch is that it is a primary sense which belongs to the basic senses of our psychology. The arena of contrasting tone and hue of Sol Aris's previous works are clearly visible here, but transformed.
The viewer is drawn by the scale and openness of the picture into the world of measure when calculating long periods of time. This image is representative of one of the central preoccupations of Sol Aris's art, the perception of the here and now experience of size and perception where the scale and openness to the piece is the sensuality of intoxification. The spectator is drawn by the scale and openness of the drawing into the world of contrast of colour and space. The viewer is drawn by the extraordinarily refined aesthetic sensibility of the piece into the world of contrast of honey and red wine. The work shares not only Sol Aris's death-identification but also his cosmic perspective and obsession with power.
``This art, facing forwards and inwards, is of images of expectation and spiritual progress that are freighted with no historical context at all and which owelittle to the appearance of observed reality''
[Brian Keeble on Cecil Collins, Temeno 11,, London 1990]