...Their effortlessness, the exciting sound of the colors and forms, the looseness of the traces of the drawings are transferred in a stimulating way to the viewer's mind...
Gallery The Art Barn, Newport, USA, October 1997Introduction to the opening Lisa Lyskava's works are not the result of exercises in color theory, but rather comments on the relationship between the image and the viewer beyond depiction. The works of Lisa Lyskava are not mirrors of states of mind, but evidence of the ongoing effortorder the world - with all its mysteries and disturbing oddities - aesthetically.
Here she benefits from an enormous confidence in dealing with the artistic means, a painterly adeptness that allows her to arrive at convincing pictorial solutions with relaxed ease. For Lisa Lyskava, titling is part of the creative act. Not an explanation, but the extension of a work to include an additional starting point for mental crystallization processes. In this way, the viewer can add his or her own to the various levels of reality in the images and thus become part of the composition. In the work process, the partial deconstruction and removal of image segments through use in works that are often created much later, which occasionally become part of new works years later, leads to multi-layered surfaces. In this way, the artist's working process is documented over the years in the material elements of her pictures.
The works are not based on a thought-out concept, they are not staged in a calculated manner following a thought-out system. The inspiration through rhythm and musical experience meets us when looking at their works. Unchecked discharges of emotions in artists are very dangerous. Deterrent examples of the painted sequences are well known - but when, as in this case, the intense, inner participation of the painter combines with a strong creative power that is able to use the experience productively, it comes to so convincing, spirit and meaning in equal measure appealing results, as can be seen in this exhibition.
Lisa Lyskava's works are created while painting. It doesn't follow a design. The coincidences that arise from the constant overpainting and overdrawing are exploited and used to further develop the pictorial idea - until the weighting of the compositional elements, the rhythms and color tones have reached a coherence that puts an end to the working process. It does not stop at pure introspection. Although traces of objectivity can only very rarely be discovered by mobilizing one's own imagination, the pictures also tell of appearances of external reality, mostly cheerful and moving, sometimes even dramatic, but without pathos. This corresponds to the temperamental style of painting that dispenses with forced snappyness. Their effortlessness, the exciting sound of the colors and forms, the looseness of the traces of the drawings are transferred in a stimulating way to the viewer's mind.
Connecting opposites is one of the artist's concerns. Hardly any other aspect of painting is as difficult to talk about as the quality of its colourfulness. Some - especially the most recent works - appear almost monochromatic and simple from afar, but on closer inspection they turn out to be complex and multi-layered organisms. Their structural principle is the visible superimposition. The deeper levels of the paint application are not subject to a process of gradual disappearance in space, but remain - on the contrary - visible during the work process and afterwards and the prerequisite for spatial reception. A constant interplay seems to keep the different layers of color and fades in motion, the color levels cannot be localized easily. However, the indeterminability of their local position guarantees their intrinsic value and their alleged changeability.
Elisabeth Stahl, art historian