I must say in advance that this accompanying letter is very speculative on my part. i have never had such a precise vision of a field, a painting with 97 colors in approximately 30,000 fields, like a musical score with rhythms and measures, as it is in a painting by james hugonin and with detlef orlopp the concentration on a field, which he sees as structure, in this particular movement, with light and shadows, always denser in its depths and heights, without sounds, undisturbed, like in a meditation, in which he works so precisely. for this essence, the black&white, analog image.

James Hugonin, born 1950 in barnard castle, county durham, uk.

He enjoys living in this countryside on the scottish border, with its stones, the sea, with bright light, without stark southern color contrasts and shadows.

Paintings from george seurat, the pointilist, had a tremendous influence on him at the beginning of his painting career. he transfers this to a vision of nonfigurative painting, as a vibrant "partitita", a musical score, a structured rhythm of color fields, structured in measures of equal color fields rising out of the square. this seemingly simple structure is then covered with a "passages" of about 30.000 color elements, this simple patterned framework, which gives him in its multiple fields the opportunity to fill them with finely tuned colors, with delicate color variations, including strong ones. these colors are a mixture of oil and wax, carefully mixed. they are transcribed in a notebook, dedicated to the individual paintings and to which the color associations are transfered. in the piece included in our exhibition, "binary rhythm IX, 2015", there are 89 clearly defined colors which he specified and entered in his notebook and which he transfered to the approximately 30.000 fields, with their rhythms and measures.

Painting such a piece can take many months, sometimes up to a full year. he works with two young assistents, the discussions together are important to him, also that the others "believe" in this painting, have a joyful mood, sometimes they work with the music of steve reich in the background. it is important for him that his notebook is viewed along witht the painting, that it is available to read, again, like a musical score. which so far no one has attempted, not even he himself, he is too curious for that, too excited about his newest vision.

He lives and works with pleasure in this familiar place and with these people he knows, here he expands his enormous fields of color, you take in all impressions, forget the world around you, in deep wonder.

Detlef Orlopp was born in 1937 in elbing, westprussia. from 1956 on he studied photography under otto steinert in saarbrücken, later essen.

He lived for the longest period in krefeld, where he later taught, now he lives and works in st. goar am rhein. he is always travelling, followed by in his memory, in a time span from the first exhibition in 1957 until today, with poetry and literature openly connected to his pieces. his many travels lead him to regions of tremendous solitude. in his work he is not concerned with history, action, movement, proportions, biology. with great concentration he looks at the surfaces of stone, water, this in its motion, at sand, ice, glaciers, he sees the light thrown on them and their shadows which sometimes distort the image into something unfamiliar, and he certainly has, like a painter, an idea of these black&white surfaces, the structure. this draws him to that place which he seeks, finds this place not like a partner, instead impartially and yet full of astonishments.

His works are black&white analog photography. some wanted to bring him to digital photography. he loathes the various graphic devices with which one could add to a reality, to distort it, or substract from it.