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The works of Ihar Kashkurevich should be analysed in the context of the profound theoretical reflection on the subject of painting, in which he has been involved since when, in the 1980s, a turn toward non-figurative art has been evident in his oeuvre. His cognitive and formal investigations have both been to a great extent affected by the theoretical thought of Kazimierz Malewicz. His involvement in projects aimed at the interpretation of Malewicz’s legacy (in the late 1980s in Vitebsk, Minsk and Moscow) provided Kashkurevich with a starting point for his own programme, based on the primary belief in the autonomy of painting.

Kashkurevich underlines that the creation of a work is, essentially, a process. He repeatedly returns to his canvases, systematically working on some elements of the arrangement and aiming at the “state of completion”, as he terms the final stage of the act. He emphasises the objectiveness of a painting, the role of physical work in its making,  the materialness of the ground, paint and brush. In his view, physicality is inseparable from purely aesthetic qualities. According to Kashkurevich, the notion of a painting as an object and a painting as an abstract value is derived from the gesture of the creator, which has both a material and a spiritual dimension and is a reflection of his psychological condition.

Looking for points of reference for the interpretation of Kashkurevich’s works, it is also necessary to cite the relationship between abstract painting and music. This relationship  was reflected upon by painters as Wassily Kandinsky or Paul Klee, or was evident in their works. Kashkurevich seems to have a special affinity to Kandinsky, who often described his works by means of musical terminology (such as “composition” or “improvisation”). Kandinsky compared hues to tones and chords (for instance yellow to middle C played on a brass trumpet), while to colour combinations he ascribed the capability of evoking vibrations of a frequency similar to chords played on the piano. Musicality is an immanent feature of the works by Kashkurevich. They have a clear rhythm, arrangements of colours suggest passages from high to low tones, and the artist’s work on the structure of the painting appears similar to recording sounds and searching for a harmony that, sealed in a material work, is to constitute a reference to the total reality of painting.

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translated from Polish by Klaudyna Michałowicz