I’ve always had the desire to make the work a unity… to make all the elements – the periphery line and the internal line, the surface, colour – equal, totally locked together.
Robert Mangold explores, from the outset of his career, new formats, making a series of paintings that delve into shape and colour. Since half way through the 60’s and during the 70’s, Mangold evolves using masonite panels as support with which he produces different shapes and structures, which he put together in series such as Walls, Areas, W, V, X or Frame Paintings.
As their titles indicate, X and + allude to mathematical operations. Made with rectangular or square canvases, they have the linear figures of X or + inscribed in pencil, respectively. These inscribed figures eliminate any illusory optical effect and maintain the action on the surface.
In the series Frame Paintings Mangold takes one step further; structures composed of many parts – four or three canvases – which are arranged to create a frame. Above them, drawn by hand, runs an irregular, hand-painted ellipse. This ellipse touches the inner corners of the painting, the inner and outer edges of the rectangles, again emphasizing on the surface of the painting. One of the central elements of these works is the link that it creates with the wall. The wall is which is framed by the work and also surrounds it.
