Peter Struycken is the first artist to systematically explore the colour possibilities of computer-generated fabrics in the TextielLab. He experimented with weaving colours on the jacquard loom and created 241 hues. He drew on this colour series to make the Boulez tapestries.
Struycken is fascinated by the composition of colours. Specifically, he is interested in the commonalities and anomalies between colours, rather than combinations of separate colours. For him, the relationship between colours is more important than the colours themselves. As early as 1969, Struycken started using computers to create his works.
The Boulez series, which he made in the TextielLab in 2004 and 2005, is an interpretation of Explosante-Fixe from 1971-1993 by French composer Pierre Boulez. The stirring pixel patterns of the finished fabrics are an emotional response to the music rather than a rational analysis. Struycken draws a parallel with ‘entoptic perception’: the shapes and colours visible upon closing your eyes. The original of this tapestry is in the Groninger Museum.
Proces
For the series, Struycken experimented with weaving colours on the computer-controlled Dornier loom. Together with the product developer, he created a palette of 241 hues using eight different weft colours (white, black, green, yellow, red, cyan, purple, magenta) and a white warp. Every binding (in other words, every colour) consists of a combination of four weft colours. He then used them to structure his colour spaces, of which the tapestries are cross-sections.
Struycken (The Hague, 1939) makes non-figurative work with different media, including paintings, drawing, woven work, spatial forms, film, video, digital media and interior and exterior design. He graduated from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in The Hague in 1961. He is a master of colour and light compositions and is best known for his large monumental works and the postage stamp featuring a pixelated image of Queen Beatrix that he designed for KPN (now PostNL) in 1981.
In 2002, he won the Oeuvreprijs Fonds Beeldende Kunst, Vormgeving en Bouwkunst, one of the most important cultural prizes in the Netherlands at the time. His work can be found in various collections, including the Stedelijk Museum, Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Groninger Museum and the TextielMuseum.
