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Introduction
The exhibition, Dynamic Fields, explores the “impact” of Stanczak’s paintings on the viewer and the sensations they create from their color palettes and compositions. Stanczak was interested in creating vibrant works that convey not only energy, but the sensation of movement and motion within them. Selections from certain bodies of work, such as his “bound boxes” and “diagonal constructs” as well as more lyrical and rhythmic compositions from his “grass” paintings, demonstrate how he used a variety of methods, including angled and diagonal lines and gradients of color to achieve his objectives.
Stanczak’s paintings were inspired by his love of nature, but color was his passion, how the palette of the paintings could transform the energy of a space and effect the mood of the viewers. He was interested in developing methods and approaches using simple lines and geometric shapes as well as repetition of such elements at angles of 45 degrees or more to suggest direction and movement. When combined with value gradients of colors or ranges of saturation, the painting surfaces softly undulated like a wave or pivoted on an edge. The artist was most interested in how the viewer experienced his work, their reaction and interpretation. His creations were always elegant and sophisticated, meticulously painted with attention given to every detail.
The Gallery’s three prior solo exhibitions for Stanczak focused on specific bodies of work. The first solo presentation in 2011, Elusive Transparencies, was a survey of what the artist referred to as “see-through” paintings—overlapping planes of color that looked as though they were floating in space, conveying depth and perspective—that were very important to him and spanned nearly his entire career. Grids and Planes, in 2012, was the second solo exhibition that presented classic grid structures with endless gradients of color that, depending upon the palette, either created a portal to access a world beyond or the center of the grid seemed to lift off the wall and intervene in the gallery space. The third solo exhibition, Lineal Pathways, in 2014 explored Stanczak’s return in the 1990s and 2000s to his more reductive approach of using just lines and a simple palette of only 2 or 3 colors to create illusory topographical surfaces that looked as though silk cloth had been draped over an array of structures on a flat surface. These were evocative of the artist’s works from the 1960s and demonstrated his continued interest in and mastery of creating the most impact with the greatest economy of means.
David Eichholtz