José Heerkens / artwork  1576

The painting is defined by seven horizontal bars of equal height, the uppermost of which has the color of the canvas. The color scale of the remaining bars is based on the attenuated complementary contrasts of red-green and orange-blue, which are adapted to the untreated character of the canvas by admixtures of white. Once again, the dominance of the horizontal is striking, broken only by two narrow vertical lines. According to Heerkens, this leads to a rhythmization of the painting that can even radiate into space: “The vertical lines form the structure of the background on which the horizontal line can move freely, and it is conceivable that these bands or lines continue beyond the edge of the canvas. Apart from this quality of movement, a certain stillness is created by the horizontal line.”