In this work Chryssa capitalizes on the phenomenon of simultaneous contrast, in which the viewer’s perception of a color is altered by the colors placed next to it. What is in fact a uniform beige ground appears lighter in the left half of the composition, where it is overlapped by a dark-blue figure, than it does in the right half of the composition, overlapped by a lighter blue figure. The work reinforces Josef Albers’s claim that we do not see any true colors; rather, our perception of any color is influenced by the colors that surround it. The blue lines work in concert to form a central symmetrical figure, which appears to be a totem or primitive sculpture and recalls the Cycladic figures (c. 2500 BCE) from Chryssa’s native Greece that influenced some of her earlier work, while simultaneously echoing the forms and icons of neon signs in Times Square.
–When We Were Young: Rethinking Abstraction From The University At Albany Art Collections (1967-Present)