About
Kurt Reich is a contemporary pointillist artist living and working in London.
Here is longer interview with Zari Gallery London if you want to know more.
Artistic Practice & Process
1. What first drew you to pointillism, and how did it become the foundation of your artistic practice?
Pointillism, if we can even call it at the time, was how I doodled in my books at school as a slightly bored kid in class. I was obsessed with stippling spheres and how you could shade them perfectly. Then I forgot about this for a long time and it all came back to me when I read a funny story in Ludwig Bemelmans' When You Lunch With The Emperor about a man who made a bet in the pub that he could draw one million dots in an hour. Naturally, he lost the bet even though he used lots of pencils between his fingers. And this is how it started, with this number. The question, “How much is a million?”, was nagging me. I wanted to do the same as that silly man but in a more measured way. I wanted to see how much one million was in real life, so one day I returned to my schoolkid-self and after a great deal of preparation I embarked on a journey to find out. It took me seven years to finish my diptych, One and a Million and the style then stuck with me.
2. Your work involves meticulously placing and counting each individual dot. Can you tell us about a typical working session looks like for you?
Counting the dots is essential, the whole point (excuse the pun) is that in the end we do know how many of those are in the painting. I have a very simple method, I use a tally counter, one of those clicking counting devices you can see being used at venues or on planes for counting people. When I paint, I count ten dots then click. In time it becomes a habit, so it all happens automatically, I don't need to concentrate on that. Now I know roughly how much is a hundred or a thousand by its looks so it helps me when to look at my numbers on the clicker and when to stop. I can only do 10-15,000 a day; over 20,000 will make me dizzy. It is a slow process.
3. Do you view your process as meditative, mathematical, or something else entirely?
The whole process is rather mechanical in a sense. Because of its repetitive nature, you can quickly “get into the zone” but instead of meditating I prefer to listen to audiobooks – lots of them... I thoroughly enjoy my time creating something this way.
4. How do you decide when a work is “finished,” given the open-ended nature of abstract forms built through accumulation?
Well, while the form itself is open-ended, the number giving body to this form is quite the opposite. I often find myself in a panic half way through a work thinking if I had enough dots left to complete the thing or wondering where I'm going to put 20 or 30,000 dots without ruining the entire image. It is always stressful until I get to a stage when I can more or less see how it all works out. Then, in the very end, it naturally stops when I literally run up to the exact number I set out to paint.
Concepts of Time, Measurement & Data
5. Much of your work translates quantitative elements such as time, numbers, and measurements into visual compositions. What role does data play in your creative decision-making?
Data is the backbone. It always comes first and then the form adapts itself to the concept derived from the number. To demonstrate, the Speed of Light took the shape of the Sun, a simple concept, but Two Tribes, which is about the result of the Brexit referendum is a bit more elaborate, there are 100,000 dots depicting two arrow heads in gold and silver or bird beaks, if you like, at the point of hitting each other on the tip. The number of gold and silver dots give you the votes respectively but I let you guess which one is more... This latter piece took me a bit longer to work out.
6. How do you develop the structures that guide the counting and placement of each dot?
It is no different from any artwork that is composed rather than “instinctively” created by free hand. I make outlines, take measurements, then fill in the areas.
7. Are your works meant to be “read” like data, or more felt as meditative experiences?
Both. They should work on all those levels. Obviously, I want to convey the numbers, I want to awe the viewer with the greatness of them, but I also want to delight and eventually inspire meditation. And in the end if we connect through my experience of “getting in the zone” by making all these dots and them thinking of me making those many, many thousands of dots over many, many hours, so be it.
Influences & Inspiration
8. Your art is informed by natural patterns, scientific structures, and the wider world. Can you share some specific sources that have recently inspired you?
Yes, the proximity of Jupiter was such an inspiration a few years ago that had touched me profoundly. Just looking at that bright object in the night sky made all that info I read about it somehow more real. Recently, I'm fascinated by the rings of Saturn which is my next work, along with the number Pi that is going to be the one after that.
9. How do you translate something as vast as nature or science into the intimate scale of pointillism?
Interestingly, astronomy works on both ends of the scale, the unimaginably vast space and all objects in it are being studied in the minutest level of subatomic particles, not to mention quantum physics, that is way beyond my comprehension, so the intimacy of the minute details of thousands of tiny dots rather naturally offers itself to depict something really big like the speed of light.
Themes of Discipline, Observation & Patience
10. Patience is clearly integral to your practice. Has this discipline evolved over your career, and if so, how?
Patience is a must in my art. It often takes months if not years to produce something that suddenly occurs in my imagination. It takes a lot of preparation before I make the first mark on the canvas. Even before I make a study I'm re- and re-thinking every little detail of each work. I'm lucky, I can visualise and turn all sorts of shapes in my head and by the time I get to paint the real thing I know precisely what I want and how to measure it etc. But here's the thing, all my works are flawed somehow. They never turn out exactly as I imagined them. Funny that.
I also have to say that from time to time I must put a painting down. To be honest, drawing those dots takes its toll on both the eyes and the mind.
11. What have you learned about observation—of the world or yourself—through years of working dot by dot?
Well, having made one million dots, I can relate much better to this number than most people. When I hear something on the radio about two million people, I can look at my work and say it is about twice as many people as I can see here. Or when I read that dinosaurs became extinct 66 million years ago, I do understand how much time has passed since. Sometime these things can hit you, but that is reality.
Artistic Evolution & Career
12. How has your style changed since you began in 2005?
Being a self taught artist, I went through a few phases like most of us. From whimsical little surrealistic pieces through a number of hommages to giants like Malevich, Magritte or Dunkel, I kind of did whatever I liked instinctively. For instance I was cutting canvases before I heard about Lucio Fontana or used a lot of black and white before I learnt about Bridget Riley. Then I found my own blue before I saw my first Yves Klein. It was fun to discover all of them retrospectively by myself and for myself. It is like going through this evolution and not being taught about it. I loved it and I felt entirely free through this process. It took me some time to find my own style of course but it is the result of a very organic learning process.
13. Looking back, is there a specific piece that marked a turning point for you as an artist?
Yes it is definitely One and a Million, where I first found my own artistic language.
14. How does living and working in London influence your art, if at all?
I love London. This is the place I wanted to live in since forever. There are quite a few paintings I often go back to in various museums, like on some mini repeat-pilgrimages or more like dates. It is a fantastic privilege that if I feel like I can see Fragonard's Swing on the same day as Manet's Bar at the Folies-Bergere or Millais' Holy Family. And of course London is a home to hundreds of contemporary galleries with all the show they can offer. But I just as much like a simple stroll in town, along the Thames or a fantastic day out at the Barbican. London made me a cosmopolitan artist and I'm grateful for that.
Viewer Experience & Interpretation
15. Your pieces often reveal hidden layers of meaning beneath abstract surfaces. What do you hope viewers experience when encountering your work?
Usually it is the abstract form that catches the eye without looking at the title. So it is quite natural that the viewer's first impression of my work is simply or shall we say, superficially, emotional. What I really like is when they have an “aha” moment when they understand the deeper meaning of the work and put the two together. When that becomes a cathartic experience for them, I'm happy.
16. How do you feel about interpretation - do you prefer viewers to seek the underlying systems, or simply engage with the visual experience?
It is essential that the viewers “get it” what the work is really about and don't just see it as an ornament. My work is often shiny, gold over blue, or bright orange levitating over the deepest black void. I think my forms are memorable, often demanding attention and sometime perhaps the title, which would give you the true meaning of the work, gets overlooked. So maybe I need to work on this in the future.
Future Directions
17. Are there new methods or concepts you hope to explore within your pointillist framework?
Yes, so far I have been using imitation gold in my original works and had them reproduced in real 24 ct gold prints but I am trying this new technique for me where I am going to work with real gold in my next paintings. I'm much looking forward to start working on those. It's all in my head, planned to the last detail.
18. Do you foresee integrating technology or digital tools, or is the hand-made nature of your work essential to the process?
All my art is strictly hand made, even the gold reproductions are hand gilded, bearing the unique traces of imperfections of this labour. The original paintings before being transferred on to silk screen have to go through a digitisation process, where I clear the image from background noises and dirt on a computer. I also separate the dots in certain images where the scanning process makes them look like they are not standing individually but touching each other. Even all of this is made by hand, one by one so there is not an algorithm that makes the decisions or alters the image.
This art is entirely made by a human in his time with his mind and his hands.
That is the point.