Color between Sign and Abstraction

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingBook chapterResearch

Facing the 40 color fields that constitute Hannibal Andersen's work The Abstract Expression of Privatization is like facing a wall with 40 coats of arms, or a board with 40 different flags. Thus, we are invited to interpret and decipher them, to understand them as signs: What are they flags or coats of arms for? But it is also like facing 40 small abstract paintings: small imitations of Rothko, Malevich, Mondrian, Yves Klein. This abstract quality invites us to let go of the interpretation of signs, to indulge in the sensation of the painterly matter without wanting it to resemble or mean something. The monopolization of colors is an extreme point in the territorialization of the sensual which already starts with human language and conceptualization. But despite this extreme territorialization, there is in Hannibal Andersen's work an excess of aesthetic delight, the kind of sensual delight that color gives. Something that cannot be incorporated into sign systems and economies, but maybe make us dream of blowing them up.
Original languageDanish
Title of host publicationThe Abstract Expression of Privatization
EditorsHannibal Andersen
Place of PublicationKøbenhavn
PublisherBilledkunstskolernes forlag
Publication date2024
Pages23-29
ISBN (Print)9788779450356
Publication statusPublished - 2024

ID: 386713586