Morning in contra light: boat dock on the river Kupa in the town of Karlovac 2022

Editor: Here we have Alfred Freddy Krupa's "Morning in contra light: boat dock on the river Kupa in the town of Karlovac" created in 2022 using acrylic paint, it gives the impression of a monochromatic dream. The use of impasto adds a tangible texture. What's your take on this piece? Curator: The reduction to near monochrome foregrounds the interplay of light and shadow as the very subject. The artist has made a conscious choice to prioritise tone, exploring the subtle gradations between light and dark. Observe how impasto isn't merely textural, but also crucial to light reflectivity and thereby to perception within pictorial space. Do you perceive how that spatial arrangement accentuates tension through contrasts, between for instance, a sharp foreground, and softer abstract areas that shape a background with hazy shapes? Editor: I hadn't considered the tension, but seeing how the darker foreground is much more defined and ‘heavy’ in texture while the buildings in the back sort of fade away. Is there a system in that composition that dictates how the artist treats the buildings as compared to say the trees in the foreground? Curator: System may be too rigid a word. I read Krupa's method here as relational in its nature; he considers depth of space. Notice how form loses integrity through its treatment on a flattened perspective that denies clear boundaries between spaces through atmospheric haziness. The composition isn't mimetic representation; rather it's focused on pictorial relations. Light and shadow render depth even in what seems to trend toward abstraction. Editor: I see what you mean, it all comes back to the surface relationship of the painted elements! I was focusing too much on representation rather than the elements, it all seems so intentional. Curator: Exactly. The point isn't to mirror the Kupa River, but to engage us with a pictorial language—of surfaces, application of paint, how it creates spatial tension, how those combine with abstract monochrome fields. I also noticed the texture plays into defining various spaces. All those add up to more than just the scene depicted in a piece like this one.