Dick Berckenkamp

Dick Berckenkamp’s Composition I (I guess I just feel like) from the Composition series presents itself as a light-filled investigation of interpersonal relationships and emotional states. The title suggests a subjective assessment – a feeling that eludes precise naming and instead finds expression in color and movement. Through the loose, searching lines, two figures can be sensed, engaged in a gentle, almost hovering interaction.

The composition is dominated by bright, atmospheric tones: a radiant lemon yellow and soft turquoise form the energetic center, while vast white areas lend the work a remarkable lightness. In contrast to the chromatic force of other works in the series, Composition I appears almost transparent, as if the feeling is only just taking shape. The flowing brushstrokes and vertical paint drips at the lower edge reinforce the impression of a fleeting moment lingering between emergence and dissolution.

Stylistically, the work recalls the tradition of Lyrical Abstraction, in which the canvas becomes a resonance space for internal states. The black contour lines do not define solid bodies but rather mark encounter zones and paths of movement. In the way the yellow areas interweave the figures, the “feeling” from the title becomes experienceable as a shared, connecting space. It is not an isolated emotion, but a vibration that unfolds in the space between.

The neutral, light background does not act as a void here, but as a necessary free space for the unfolding of this delicate dynamic. The result is a work that touches the viewer through its openness and unobtrusiveness. Composition I (I guess I just feel like) thus becomes a visual reflection on the fragility and, at the same time, the luminosity of human sensations that exist beyond words in a state of pure, colorful being.