Stella Shakerchi Exhibition

Stella Shakerchi, the artist, is at her best with her inimitable abstract paintings and in her current exhibition at the Bermuda Society of Arts, her abstracts, are in my estimation, the best that I have seen her do.

Her abstracts are, however, difficult to describe.

They remind me of Analytical Cubism, but they are really not Cubist at all.

Unlike Cubism, which has its roots in realism, Ms Shakerchi's paintings are completely abstract.

The apparent Cubistic appearance comes from what appears to be her use of multiple planes or facets. Analytical Cubism is also made up of what appears to be facets.

The essential aspect of this branch of Cubism, though, is depicting the world from multiple viewpoints, but on a single plane, each individual view overlapping each other.

In doing so, the world appears as fractured or as faceted. Gems are usually cut into faceted plains as well and there is a gem-like quality to Ms Shakerchi's paintings.

I have been tempted to refer to them as crystal-cubist paintings, but in the end, none of these descriptions are completely adequate.

Considering these works from the perspective of their being gem-like, however, they seem to have an apparent transparence, much as polished gems seem to have.

That too, along with their faceted look, is what gives these paintings their gem-like appearance.

All the paintings in Stella Shakerchi's exhibition, are composed around a central point and the facets just mentioned, all radiate from that point.

As the facets approach the centre, they become progressively smaller, Thus creating the perception of a vortex.

The centre either seems to sink into the painting, or at times it seems that one can look, as if through a transparent membrane into a lower plane within the painting.

Colour plays an integral role in Ms Shakerchi's paintings. Indeed, without the variations in colour, the perception of what appear as facets, would be destroyed.

The artist employs rather complex, systematic colour harmonies throughout and yet, she tells me that her use of colour is more intuitive.

With each painting, the colour harmony changes. For example, with #10, 'Source', the colour scheme used is what is called analogous.

This means that she makes use of only those colours that are neighbours on the colour wheel.

In this case, the colours are yellow, yellow-orange, orange, red orange etc.

In other paintings, her choices of colours are more complimentary; that is, the colours used are those that are opposites on the colour wheel, or even a range of colours along the circumference of the wheel are paired with those across the wheel on the opposite side.

This is closer to being a split compliment. These varied harmonies are made additionally complex by the artist's use of variations in colour tone-values.

By this I mean, instead of just any blue, she uses a variety of blues, from light blue to a middle blue or even a dark blue.

What is true for blue is true for the other colours as well.

The use of warm against cool colours and light hues against darks, create the perception of push and pull or in and out.

This is why we see these painted planes, which are in reality, quite flat, as angled or faceted.

There is a musical quality to Ms Shakerchi's creations. Her use of colour is the visual counterpart of "counterpoint."

I am reminded of an entry that Paul Klee made in his diary in March, 1910.

He wrote: "And now an altogether revolutionary discovery: to adapt oneself to the contents of the paintbox is more important than nature and its study. I must some day be able to improvise freely on the chromatic keyboard of the rows of watercolour cups."

I see Ms Shakerchi's paintings as colour improvisations, with the paint box as her instrument.

The exhibition continues through December 12, 2007.