Description and Manual
Ad Dekkers Relief with Black and White Cubes 1965 Painted wood 94 by 94 cm Tactile relief
This wooden relief is made true to the original size. It is a square measuring 94 by 94 centimetres. The square is formed by 15 horizontal rows of square blocks of 15 by 15 centimetres. Each block is placed at the same distance from the other.
Thus, the top horizontal row consists of eight square 3D blocks and seven flat squares, alternating next to each other.
The second horizontal row starts with the flat block, followed by the 3D block. This keeps repeating itself.
This results in 8 flat squares and seven 3D blocks next to each other.
What about the colour? Dekkers’ reliefs are often monochrome white, giving way to the effects of shadows. But in this work, he plays with black and white.
How did he divide these colours?
All odd horizontal rows are painted white, including the top and bottom.
The middle horizontal row - the eighth row - consists of blocks, which are alternately painted black and white. The vertical middle row is also alternately black and white.
Move your hand to the horizontal second row. Feel the pattern here of three blocks of white and one block of black that follow each other. In total, you can feel three black blocks.
The black and white sequence in the fourth row is as follows: one white, one black, three white, one black, one white, one black, one white, one black, three white, one black, and one white cube.
Row six proceeds as follows: three white, one black, one white, one black, one white, one black, one white, one black, one white, one black, finishing with three white blocks.
This creates a black and white pattern, which in turn creates a black cross. Depending on what you focus on, you can always discover different patterns. See if you can feel the diamond pattern, or divide the square into four squares to discover an identical black and white pattern.
In the early 1960s, Ad Dekkers explored pure shapes such as circles, triangles and squares. From 1965 on, he makes reliefs like the one you’ve just encountered. You don't have to wonder what the symbolism is or what the artist means by this. This is about rhythm, symmetry and the play on the pure shape of a square.
Text by Fleur Brom, museum teacher at the Van Abbemuseum.