Turning against the emotive, gesticular abstraction of Tachisme and Art Informel, Staudt’s predominantly grid-like reliefs, composed of a restricted set of materials and geometric shapes, are the essence of structural clarity and restraint. Exploiting the interaction between light, shade and colour, through the mediation of a glassy medium, his serial structures appear to have a fluctuating life of their own, some densely packed and opaque, others watery and diaphanous.
For all their systematic precision and the predominance of the opportunistic white, Staudt’s objects are from being clinical or insular, but are infinitely receptive to their surroundings and the viewer’s perceptions, treading a fine line between rational, constructivist precedents and ineffable transcendence.
Staudt spoke to Studio International at his exhibition, Light and Transcendence, at the Mayor Gallery, London.
