THE MEANING OF COLORS

Excerpt from the book : Maximillien de La Croix “Mistral” An Introduction to the Omorphism Movement , 1990

  By Dr. John Chen, United Nations/UNESCO Laureate. Former Member of the White House Presidential Committee-Convention on Information and Library Sciences. Washington, DC, USA 

 

     

De La Croix took his colors from unspoiled nature, forgotten places and temples, folkloric tales, mystical quasi-metaphysical dimensions, and from within…up to a certain level. Because, in his black and white series, the student and connoisseur of abstract art would easily  recognize the paramount influence of Italian Ultra Modern Abstract art, the Romana geometrical school and in many instances, the progressive New York school of Minimalism. The Black and White ensemble and composition were influenced by the “ Mystique” and  “Spiritualisme”, as well as by  the contemporary style of Italian architecture and “industrialism” of the post Cubism era. His teacher Gino Severini was  hismajor and original source of influence that defined forever the style, concept and message of his Neo Cubism and Progressive Cubism “genre”.   

                                                                                                       

De La Croix’s vivid and vibrant colors reflect his intense way of life,  quest for the unconventional and  love for adventure and  the “Risque”. He found his way and his inspiration in the early work of Braques,  Picasso, Malevich, Kandinski, Dali and Klee whom, he considered as  the real great masters of abstract art, probably the only ones! Whether he paints in black and white or in colors, de La Croix’s message is clear; The Form, the Composition and the equilibrium of a projected idea or a feeling on a canvas must be intellectually, intelligently and emotionally  free, unconditional, non-traditional and above all, straight from within and from a “parallel world”.

  THE SECRET IS IN THE “PINCEAU” (THE BRUSH)

During his apprenticeship at the Severini Studio, de La Croix was asked, trained and taught how to “break one color into thirty different shades and tones” and foremost how to create his own palette from “unrevealed sources”, meaning finding THE colors not in the tube but, in and from his mind and heart. De La Croix confessed to me once, that while working on a painting, he never cleaned his brush (or brushes) and his palette. He did not want to miss the last drip of paint color that was left or hidden in the brush, because it was there… the “undiscovered, the ultimate, the parallel and the most spiritually sensitive color nuances…De La Croix said “ Never clean your brushes until there is no more feelings or warmth in your hands”. De La Croix added “ The best part of an old good red French wine bottle is the last few drops in an empty glass”.