Michael Kracauer
My work as a painter began a few years ago. I have been working as an architect for over 30 years. Although architecture has real-world constraints, including and not least, the budget one has to work with and the programmatic parameters set by the client, it also is an important art form. It is in our architectural spaces where we display and interact with our paintings and sculptures. This connection between architecture and art drew me into wanting to begin painting.
Like in my architectural work, I ‘design’ the artwork on my computer and then ‘build’ it when I plot out the shapes on a canvas and then paint it. As an artist I can explore the visual world in a more expansive way using the contrast and counterpoint of: Flat vs 3 dimensional. Opaque vs degrees of transparency. Abstract forms vs figurative.
I think of my work as feeling ‘musical’ when it works best, whereby musical terms such as counterpoint, harmony, dissonance, melody, chords, etc. describe the feelings it engenders. And unlike programmatic music and songs which usually have a story that they are conveying, my paintings are non-programmatic and therefore abstract, which one can say about most chamber music pieces and symphonies.
