The non-color white causes a great
commotion
We may call it the legacy of Mondriaan. The artist Yahya Youssef drags his inspiration out of the Dutch and German abstract and constructivism, that becomes a consequent, well-considered form of language which do not conceal its origin, but lets its own sound to be heard, to prove that the legacy is not yet exhausted, Youssef digs in his work which he shows at the Stijl gallery in Arnhem, and gets forms differs to the hard-edge and its related abstract geometry, that comes almost with known forms.
Youssef leaves the chance to play a roll in his work, his calculations to get an exact square of 90 degrees, letting it be crossed so that the lines get a perfect symmetric form, these calculations are not made consciously, but by feeling, with the consequence of new notions which can be easily processed.
The chance-element treads mostly in his silk-screens and small objects, his series of prints of a group which have a V-mark in changing colors, where they contrast with the two basic-tone of black and gray, after using red,yellow and blue is the last one suddenly white, The non-color white, as Mondriaan called it, caused a greet commotion in the composition, white here is not really a color, it falls together with the background, it is only as an open space between the other V-marks.
Youssef uses always bright colors like red,blue,green and white. He analyses colors on its intensity and comes to the conclusion that every color has its own depth intensity. Red is more present in construction than blue, white gives another impression than yellow.
Using these elements raises the suggestion of depth of space in the paintings as in the objects. You keep looking again and again for what you really see. Rhythm and discipline and everything you do to see, like lines which attempts to cross each other out of the picture; there is a continuous tension in what seems to be a simple forms-language.
Mr.Cees Straus (Trouw)
