Chromatic Renaissance - Ingrid Floss: con contributo critico di Kulia Berghoff

At first glance, Ingrid Floss’s paintings may appear chaotic, perhaps even overwhelming, due to the immediate flood of stimuli they convey. They are deliberately anything but pleasing and refuse to submit to their surroundings. Yet Floss’s paintings are guided by a profound sense of order. They are carefully balanced, both chromatically and compositionally. Every smallest element in these complex systems is essential to maintaining the fragile balance of the image. As impulsive as they may seem, they are ultimately the result of a guided and conscious process, which gives the works their particular tension.

Dynamic, gestural color fields overlap or flow around each other like in an organic grid. However, these paintings are not about precision or clearly defined areas. What matters is the interplay of colors and their expansion across the surface. One constantly notices chromatic affinities, such as the complementary contrasts of yellow and blue or red and green. The size of a yellow accent, for instance, depends strongly on its surroundings and its “neighbors.” Is there a balancing counterpart on the opposite side of the image? Or how does the visual weight shift when a green accent is placed right next to it? A puzzle begins to unfold, extending across the entire surface. After each new color field, the artist analyzes how the image has changed and what it now needs compositionally to remain in balance.

Gray and white play an important role in this process. They loosen up the dense mixture of colors and thus become essential design elements. Sometimes they appear as light accents emerging from the canvas background; at other times they form cloud-like structures around which other color formations press forward powerfully and dissolve again. In doing so, the colored surfaces suddenly become spatial, even physical. They are charged with movement and energy. The dynamic color forms push to the very edges of the canvas, as if the surface were barely sufficient to contain them. They flow into and around one another, compressed into a tight space like an explosive gas mixture.

Floss’s paintings are full of tension and ultimately demand their space. Since they cannot find it within, they claim it outwardly. It is as if an invisible energy field grants the works a safety distance. Even as a viewer, one might feel compelled to take a step back, to give the paintings more room. The square formats in particular enhance the impression of equalized tension in all directions. The harmonious principle of the square ultimately supports the works in their refined equilibrium. Alongside the square formats, there are also elongated horizontal works reminiscent of the typical landscape panorama, which opens up space for associations. One might think of natural processes, weathering, condensation, explosion, or growth, yet the paintings remain abstract, autonomous, and detached from any figurative reference. They deliberately resist any unambiguous interpretation.

This openness demands attention. Floss’s paintings are not depictions but events. They take place in the very moment of viewing and are constantly changing. They shift with distance, with light, and with the viewer’s willingness to allow and enjoy the flow of energy. Only through direct viewing does the work reveal itself as a body endowed with depth, space, and movement. No reproduction can truly convey this perception, which in itself is proof of their vitality.

This sensory immediacy in Floss’s work is combined with a deep awareness of art history that deliberately connects intuition and analysis. She draws on the gestural freedom of Abstract Expressionists such as Hans Hofmann or Joan Mitchell, as well as the analytical thinking of Josef Albers or Piet Mondrian. The influences of Paul Cézanne, Alexej von Jawlensky, and Adolf Hölzel also resonate in her work. From them, Floss inherits an interest in the interplay of colors, the spatial effect of surfaces, and the dynamic role of the picture’s edge. As in Albers, the viewer’s gaze is guided through color across the entire pictorial space, while Hofmann’s emotional approach is reflected in the vibrating color fields. Thus, rational structure and emotional expressiveness merge into a unified visual entity.

The balance between feeling and control, between spontaneous gesture and reflective analysis, is for Floss not only an aesthetic pursuit but also a necessary human attitude. In an age where emotions often escalate unchecked, her painting reminds us that both forces, the intuitive and the rational, depend on one another and can only create harmony through balance. In Floss’s works, intuition and control keep each other in check. It becomes clear that every brushstroke is not merely born of impulse, but of a profound understanding of color, rhythm, and pictorial architecture.

The initial sensory overload finally condenses into a sensual experience in which the eye continuously discovers new structures and relationships. Floss’s paintings reveal themselves gradually, and in doing so, the process of their creation also becomes evident. Their complex structure is thus disclosed only to those who can withstand their intensity and are willing to let themselves be moved by it.