Yestin Gray

In my view history of art is particularly relevant when it is about technique. Techniques evolve. Meaning, intentions and stories, how important they may be in psychological and sociological context, often change but do not evolve. I am sure we will never discover a new feeling but we surely will discover new techniques of making images and paintings.

An object exists by itself and is independent of what we think about it, independent of the purpose it is made for. Yves Tanguy, the great French surrealist, once said: "The painting develops before my eyes, unfolding its surprises as it progresses. It is this which gives me the sense of complete liberty, and for this reason I am incapable of forming a plan or making a sketch beforehand". He is the master of the surrealists who try to eradicate thought when they work, try to eliminate all control exercised by reason and moral preoccupation.

Other painters, along with the already mentioned Yves Tanguy, that made a lasting impression on me. In my work I like to discover fascinating and enticing combinations of colours (Hockney) and try to be conscious of the feelings of enjoyment and satisfaction the developing work generates in me (Hopper). In making (digital) paintings, space, structure and form are essential. Wassily Kandinsky excels in this. Fractals (the fusion of mathematics and art) are a leading principle when I make abstract digital images: the method of repeating a simple process that results in magnificent complexity.

I started to make digital images in August 2018. After seeing Jeff Koon's first exhibition of his Gazing Ball (Perugino's Madonna and Child with Four Saints), in De Nieuwe Kerk in Amsterdam. Koons brought the over five hundred year old masterpiece with advanced digital image processing and colour analysis to the 21st century. My first publication was a collage made with Excel. I started with Excel because I had become acquainted with the work of Tatsuo Horiuchi who made his marvelous digital paintings in Excel.

Slowly I started to experiment with various software packages (like photo editors) and now my artwork is mainly produced with my own software written in Python. But in contrast to Generative Artists my work is not dictated by mathematical formula only. On several moments in the making process I intervene and make aesthetic decisions. Compare it to a backgammon game: the result of the dice thrown is translated into a human decision where to move the checker. Often my aim is to make the result resemble a real painting on canvas. Like painters that need paint they can put on a canvas, I need pixels from photographs. My work consists of duplicating pixels and transforming sets of pixels.

With the arrival of Intelligent Image Generators my focus shifted from the abstract tot the figurative. It’s a shift in focus as I still make abstract images.

Yves Tanguy: The ribbon of excess (1932)

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Jeff Koons: Perugino's Madonna and Child with Four Saints with Glazing Ball

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Tatsuo Horiuchi: Landscape

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David Hochney: My parents (1977)

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Edward Hopper: Nighthawks (1942)

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Wassily Kandinsky

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