Effort XXIII

Effort XXIII depicts a figure in a yoga gymnastic position. While seated, she stretches straightened arms and legs upward, hands entwine feet as if she wanted to put them diagonally on the floor. In this manner, she forces her body to keep the balance: shaky, momentary, before balancing on the cradle of her buttocks, she will incline backwards. The straightened torso, closed with a delicate arch of her back, inscribes itself into the rhythm of vertical divisions, marked by the side borders of the painting, bright walls and a stripe of dark green. The verticals of the limbs thrown up in the air seem to be the dominant directions of the composition. Their bright rhythms are distinctly sketched on the background of a centrally placed rectangle. The horizontal rectangle of the dark floor pulls in and stabilizes the figure with its weight. The painting seems to be a play in search of balance, with the use of the body’s arrangements, directional tensions, rhythms, masses and weights of the colour moved according to the vertical axis of the canvas. The colour scheme is reduced to blue-grey white, cold emerald green and black. The flatness of the colour and its decided surface strengthens the graphic-poster impact of the hues. [M. Ipczynska]