Daniel Lergon
Daniel Lergon’s paintings deal with the correlative interplay between light and surface, and the optical effects and perceptions that result from this. Whereas in his early works, Lergon used color pigments within the range of the color spectrum, applying them to all kinds of transparent, reflective, and absorptive material surfaces, he later also included colors at the very extremes of the spectrum into his work. His intensive study of the colors was thus always tied to the materiality of the painting’s ground and the question regarding this influence this would have on the viewer’s perception.
Since 2007, Lergon has been working without using color pigments directly, painting instead with colorless, clear lacquer on technical grounds. These initially grey, later white, retro reflective materials behave unusually concerning how they reflect the light. By using them, Lergon creates a painting that dispenses with color pigments, and which essentially comes about in the special reflection of the light upon the varnish and painting’s ground. In “ANTUMBRA,” his 2011 exhibition at Galerie Christian Lethert in Cologne, the theme of light was linked to the notion of shadows. In these works, instead of using bright, light reflecting materials Lergon paints on a black ground, which, …
Daniel Lergon’s paintings deal with the correlative interplay between light and surface, and the optical effects and perceptions that result from this. Whereas in his early works, Lergon used color pigments within the range of the color spectrum, applying them to all kinds of transparent, reflective, and absorptive material surfaces, he later also included colors at the very extremes of the spectrum into his work. His intensive study of the colors was thus always tied to the materiality of the painting’s ground and the question regarding this influence this would have on the viewer’s perception.
Since 2007, Lergon has been working without using color pigments directly, painting instead with colorless, clear lacquer on technical grounds. These initially grey, later white, retro reflective materials behave unusually concerning how they reflect the light. By using them, Lergon creates a painting that dispenses with color pigments, and which essentially comes about in the special reflection of the light upon the varnish and painting’s ground. In “ANTUMBRA,” his 2011 exhibition at Galerie Christian Lethert in Cologne, the theme of light was linked to the notion of shadows. In these works, instead of using bright, light reflecting materials Lergon paints on a black ground, which, due to its consistency, reflects the light less intensively. The varyingly dense traces of the transparent painting lacquer yield extremely different intensities of darkness. Hence, the title of the exhibition: ANTUMBRA–a technical term that comes from astronomy and geometric optics and describes the area of a shining surface located behind the occluding shadow of an object.
Lergon’s work has been the subject of several exhibitions, notably at the Esbjerg Kunstmuseum in Denmark, AEREA in Sweden, Von-der-Heydt-Museum in Germany, Daimler Contemporary in Germany, and the Signum Foundation in Venice.
Courtesy of Galerie Christian Lethert