CRAIG KAUFFMAN

Craig Kauffman came to prominence in Los Angeles in the 1960s, combining the latest industrial processes with a wide-ranging knowledge of European art history to produce innovative forms in sensuous colours and materials specific to his milieu. He is famous for his experiments in vacuum forming, making use of a commercial process to add literal depth to the bulbous two-dimensional forms he had developed in earlier drawings and paintings. The process allowed the same mold to be used and reused, the same shape executed in various colour combinations. Many of the vacuum formed works utilised mechanical and biomorphic forms with contours that are simultaneously geometrical and organic, for example bubbles, flowers and sinuous sheets. Colour was integral to the material, as well as being treated to complex sprayed finishes, often appearing alarmingly otherworldly and futuristic. With structure and surface unified, Kauffman was able to investigate the core principles of light, space and colour, using a modern commercial technology to forge a new vision.