Maryan Besaga

In this work, the principle of musical composition is transformed into an almost architectonic system. Vertical bands of colour, rectangular modules, and black pauses construct a complex rhythm in which colour functions much like sound — through repetition, changes in duration, accent, and silence.

The composition does not develop around a single centre, but unfolds as a polyphonic structure. Individual chromatic sequences emerge, break off, transform, and return at a different scale. Black planes become significant pauses between colour “phrases,” while variations in the width and height of the modules create a sense of differing durations.

The title New London introduces another possible level of interpretation: the rhythmic structure may evoke a large city — its verticals, movement, light, fragmentation, and the simultaneous existence of multiple events. Yet the city is not depicted literally. Instead, it is transformed into a system of chromatic rhythms.

In New London. Part I, painting becomes a kind of score in which colour, form, interval, and pause generate a visual music of their own. This principle — the transformation of one mode of perception into another — lies at the heart of the Transformation series.