I started focusing on painting Black & White abstract paintings as a category when art critic Donald Kuspit said to me, “I see what you can do with colors, but show me what you can do with black and white.”
Later, Kuspit would write, “Black is another color, as Matisse said. Manolis’ mastery of black confirms that he is a modern master … and with that an abstract expressionist…”
I paint Black & White paintings on canvas and watercolors. This is the only category for which I choose a different feeling or theme to explore on an annual basis. For example, in 2014, his Black & White series was executed with ‘great movement,’ or a visual representation of a Hurricane. It was a cathartic expression of that seismic year of many changes in my life. Abstract expressionist artists must paint what they feel, according to Hans Hoffman who was the father of the New York school of Abstract expressions and teacher to my teacher, Wolf Khan.
