“The butterfly has become to Mark Grotjahn what the target is to Kenneth Noland, the zip was to Barnett Newman, and the color white is to Robert Ryman. Grotjahn’s abstracted geometric figure is suitably elusive. In fact, the more familiar it becomes, the more he refines its ability to surprise and, perhaps paradoxically, takes it further away from actual butterflyness”
Beaming with an irrepressible energy and complex perspectival logic, Mark Grotjahn’s Untitled (Canary Yellow and Crimson Red Butterfly 823) from 2008 is a striking example of the artist’s highly accomplished butterfly compositions. In this series, the artist employs the butterfly motif as a means of investigating Renaissance perspectival techniques with dual and multiple vanishing points. The central vanishing point becomes the body of the butterfly, from which its wings radiate outwards in a stunning interplay of illusionistic space and graphic representation. Executed in a vivid hues of red and yellow, the present work is an invigorating example of the framework that has become Grotjahn’s most sustained visual investigation.
「蝴蝶對馬克．格羅亞恩而言，就像是肯尼斯．諾蘭的標靶，巴奈特．紐曼的拉鍊，以及羅伯特．賴曼的白色。格羅亞恩的抽象幾何物體恰到好處地令人難以捉摸。事實上，這些物體越眼熟，他就會加強當中驚喜的元素，並矛盾地令它們更脫離蝴蝶的形態。」
馬克・格羅亞恩創作於2008年的《無題（金絲雀黃和赤紅色蝴蝶823）》張力躍然紙上，透視視點複雜交錯，是他備受讚譽的《蝴蝶》系列中一幅精彩的作品。在本系列中，藝術家以蝴蝶為主題，並在畫面中疊加兩組或以上的透視消失點，從中鑽研文藝復興時期的透視法技巧。位處中央的透視消失點是蝴蝶的身軀，「蝶翼」從這裡向外擴散延伸，這圖像化的呈現營造出一個錯視空間，具象的線條與抽象的錯視感巧妙地相互交匯。本作以鮮明的紅色和黃色為主調，不但引人入勝，更呈現了格羅亞恩一直以來探索的視覺效果。