![](https://www.silkbynature.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/11-seta-e-arte-silkbynature_01.jpg)
15 Oct Emil Lukas, painting with silk
When we think of contemporary art, what we think of at first are performances, exhibitions, video-art, photography, digital art and other techniques and languages/means of communication which stimulates a sort of conceptual creativity. Only later we think about painting and sculpture, probably because these are disciplines linked to a much more typical conception of art. In the past, during the Modern Era, artistic routes changed by going along the fundamental objective of painting: studying the color, the sign of the brush, the choice of hemp canvas.
But what if the canvas was “painted” with silk yarns?
![](https://www.silkbynature.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/11-seta-e-arte-silkbynature_02.jpg)
Thread paintings
“Thread paintings”, this is how Emil Lukas defines his works of art, where a thin yarn connects what is usually considered as painting with techniques like sculpture and art exhibition. It seems like the evolution of that research over color started with Modernists, a research which finds in Lukas’ silk yarn the best material to fill the canvas and to dispel the borders among different artistic genres. This results in the “painting” having a contemporary dimension, where visual conception and external beauty melt.
![](https://www.silkbynature.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/11-seta-e-arte-silkbynature_03-ok.jpg)
Lukas, an American artist born in Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania), starts to experiment the yarn as drawing material at the end of 1980s, inheriting the passion for unusual materials from his mother, a craftswoman. Through this sort of “raw materials” – from yarns to biological products like little larvas – Lukas gives birth to works of art which are almost impossible to categorize.
![](https://www.silkbynature.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/11-seta-e-arte-silkbynature_04.jpg)
![](https://www.silkbynature.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/11-seta-e-arte-silkbynature_05.jpg)
In his pieces, thin threads intertwine and create a 3D and polychrome weft which changes according to the light. Little larvas builds up ink nets similar to abstract paintings. Lukas’ artistic process does not seem complicated at a first sight, but the eye is tricked by distance; when we get closer to his works of art, we see how complex they are, and this discovery gives some kind of magic to the artistic process.
![](https://www.silkbynature.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/11-seta-e-arte-silkbynature_06.jpg)
![](https://www.silkbynature.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/11-seta-e-arte-silkbynature_07.jpg)
In an interview with the director of Philadelphia Contemporary, Lukas stated that among all the materials he uses to build up his abstract and complex artistic language, he has a particular preference for silk since it is thinner and more elegant compared to polyester-made yarn. Such qualities of silk yarns allow Emil Lukas to create pieces with a softer and more ethereal appearance, like his “thread paintings”.
Fonte: Blouin ArtInfo
For/If you look for more information on the American artist Emil Lukas and his works of art, you can visit the website: https://www.speronewestwater.com/artists/emil-lukas
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.