Nikola Dimitrov

The series Aria dating from 2011 is inspired by Johann Sebastian Bach’s Goldberg Variations. It comprises 40 works on handmade paper, which are to be seen as one coherent work. On the theme Aria Bach composed 30 different musical alterations for harpsichord with two manuals. The characteristics of these variations are differences in texture, tempo, key and time signature, articulation, as well as different renditions of the interval canon – corresponding with the Aria’s bass line. The musical composition is visualized in black, white and grey. Thus, the pictorial works place a particular focus on a rhythmic experience of the music. Different combinations of rows of strokes superimposed horizontally, vertically and diagonally give rise to a wide range of structures and patterns that are founded on a superordinate framework. Rather than being one-to-one renderings of the Goldberg Variations, the paintings on handmade paper exhibit analogies by means of a visual language.

Nikola Dimitrov