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Zak Prekop — "When looking at paintings, an awareness of material reality coincides with the perception of an interior, pictorial space, so a painting is looked both at and through. I work with this literally in many of my paintings where one actually sees through the semi-transparent canvas to its other side, so that looking into or through is again a process of perceiving real material, not only the kind of painterly space that has been constructed historically by conventions like the rectangle of stretcher bars or an oval framing in a portrait." Zak Prekop
Zak Prekop

"When looking at paintings, an awareness of material reality coincides with the perception of an interior, pictorial space, so a painting is looked both at and through. I work with this literally in many of my paintings where one actually sees through the semi-transparent canvas to its other side, so that looking into or through is again a process of perceiving real material, not only the kind of painterly space that has been constructed historically by conventions like the rectangle of stretcher bars or an oval framing in a portrait." Zak Prekop

Zak Prekop's triptych in oil on canvas investigates the dual nature of painting as both physical object and illusory space. Working with semi-transparent canvas, Prekop allows the viewer to literally see through to the reverse side of the support, collapsing the distinction between looking *at* and looking *through* a painting. The triptych format extends this inquiry across three panels, emphasizing the materiality of the canvas itself as the primary pictorial subject rather than any constructed or conventional painterly space.

Medium
triptych: oil on canvas
Spotted At
Auction House · Phillips

🔨 Auction Lot

Under the Influence

April 13, 2015

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More by Zak Prekop

2 works: (i) Reversal with Green; (ii) Unmeasured Pattern

2 works: (i) Reversal with Green; (ii) Unmeasured Pattern

2014

About this work

Zak Prekop, "When looking at paintings, an awareness of material reality coincides with the perception of an interior, pictorial space, so a painting is looked both at and through. I work with this literally in many of my paintings where one actually sees through the semi-transparent canvas to its other side, so that looking into or through is again a process of perceiving real material, not only the kind of painterly space that has been constructed historically by conventions like the rectangle of stretcher bars or an oval framing in a portrait." Zak Prekop

Zak Prekop's triptych in oil on canvas investigates the dual nature of painting as both physical object and illusory space. Working with semi-transparent canvas, Prekop allows the viewer to literally see through to the reverse side of the support, collapsing the distinction between looking *at* and looking *through* a painting. The triptych format extends this inquiry across three panels, emphasizing the materiality of the canvas itself as the primary pictorial subject rather than any constructed or conventional painterly space.

Medium
triptych: oil on canvas
Seen at
Phillips, New York, London, Hong Kong

Related themes

Minimalist Abstraction, Contemporary American Artist, Material Exploration, Contemplative Mood, Translucent, Conceptual, Thoughtful, Male Artist, Triptych Format, American, Mixed Media, Semi-Transparent Materiality, Process Based Art, Conceptual Art, Emerging Artist, Experimental, Abstract Painting, Geometric Abstraction, Triptych, Muted Neutral Tones, Neutral Tones, Abstract, Oil on Canvas, Contemporary, Semi-Transparent Layers

More works by Zak Prekop