Painting in Space

also: Les Peintures dans l'espace

movement 1930s France Armenia

Painting in Space (French: Les Peintures dans l'espace) is an art movement invented by the Armenian modernist Yervand Kochar in 1930s Paris, synthesizing the possibilities of painting, graphic art and sculpture. Its works are constructions of painted metal panels mounted on a base with a motor that turns them in slow motion, so that separate spatial elements merge and part as the viewer watches. Kochar's aim was to break the frozen stillness of traditional form, introducing movement and time into the painted image; he insisted the results were 'painting in motion', not sculpture. His 1934 work Les Peintures dans l'espace entered the collection of the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, where it stands as a pioneering anticipation of kinetic and multidimensional art.

abstract watercolor painting on paper 'Through - Truth, 2016 - colorful goauche art by Dutch artist Fons Heijnsbroek with much interior spac
abstract watercolor painting on paper 'Through - Truth, 2016 - colorful goauche art by Dutch artist Fons Heijnsbroek with much interior spacCC BY 2.0 (credit: Fons Heijnsbroek) · source

Defining characteristics

  • Open reliefs of painted metal panels instead of flat canvases
  • Slow motorized rotation that merges separate forms over time - painting in motion
  • Synthesis of picture, graphic line and sculptural volume in one work
  • Geometric three-dimensional forms with painted surfaces across multiple planes
  • Time and movement treated as picture elements alongside color and line

Key figures

  • Yervand Kochar (1899-1979) — Armenian modernist who invented the movement and built its works in Paris

Example works

  • Les Peintures dans l'espace — Yervand Kochar (1934)

Sources

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