Elena Lux-Marx

Elena Lux-Marx (born 1944 in Oberammergau, Germany) began to explore Constructivist and Concrete Art while she was a student at the Hochschule der Künste Berlin from 1965 to 1970. Her interest was inspired by color theory, especially the physiology of perception as explored by Josef Albers in his work “Interaction of Color” (1963), among others. Lux-Marx thus became fascinated by the laws of color permeation, and this has continued to define her paintings and gouaches since the 1970s. As a rule, the fundamental system in her works is grounded in orthogonal stripes – in some cases she focuses only on square formations – which consist of many tiny squares. The successive color nuances of these small squares create color gradations that can seem to vibrate intensely, depending on the color scale. Her works encompass all of the color spectrum and are orchestrated in such a way that they produce an almost synaesthetic experience using an entire host of colors, or by focusing on only two. Her work “Persian midnight – 3rd dematerialized zone” is an example of the latter, about which the artist has said: “In this picture, I demonstrate how two complementary colors – a magenta brightened with white and a green darkened with black layered on top of each other in the center of the picture – form a neutral gray zone halfway to the middle, where delicate color nuances, in this case 64, blend with each other.” The skillful mastering of such color permeations is the result of her keen ability to differentiate between colors, meticulous planning, and highly concentrated, time-intensive, technical execution. Her artistic oeuvre revolves around the essential idea that “seeing as an act of making decisions and creating something artistic” lies with the beholders. In this way, she calls on our “co-creative” abilities – in other words, our willingness to see consciously. This heightens our senses and enables us to take in the pure beauty of this color cosmos more intensely.

Elisabeth Grossmann