Leaning, 1990

Michael Michaeledes initially worked within representational painting. Gradually his manner became more abstract, indeed becoming completely abstract by 1959. Always aspiring to capture the essence of light and to exploit the possibilities it offered for the highlighting of his compositions, he limited his use of color and along with his painting began to create reliefs and structures to be viewed from all sides, initially white and then in one or even more colors, which were composed into simple geometric shapes. In these constructions he makes use of the frame and canvas, but reverses their traditional use, as the frame functions as the interior support to which is adapted and stretched the fabric. The geometric compositions that arise from this process, repeating a shape in the same size or a gradually increasing one, are minimalist renderings of natural forms, familiar human structures or ancient architectural elements. At the same time, with the placement of the frame in the interior and the manner by which the material is stretched, even with the distance that one piece of material is placed from another, such as in “Leaning”, he manages to exploit the possibilities of light which thereby creates a host of chiaroscuros, projecting the volumes to the utmost and stressing the relief texture of the surfaces.