Gustav Gnamuš belongs to a generation of artists who in the early 1970s turned away from mostly European trends to the quite different strategies and tenets of American art. His painting was strongly influenced by color field painting, in which large areas of color serve to create an immersive visual and sensory experience, going beyond mere depiction.

Rather than just a support for the paint, the canvas in Gnamuš’s works is an active surface, revealing subtle color and light effects. Crucial in his creative work are acrylic paints: water-based, they dry quite quickly and allow thinner, transparent applications. In the 1960s, these paints became more widely available, opening up new possibilities for experimentation. Gnamuš applied them with an airbrush, which contributed to the effect of softly diffused color and optical lightness.

Another special feature of Gnamuš’s approach is his manner of combining colors. Rather than exploring the contrast between light and dark values he focused on the relations between warm and cool colors, achieving the effect of intense glow. His works require a suitable display space and carefully thought-out lighting, since the apparently uniform color fields transform into dynamic, vibrating surfaces under the right conditions. The color seems almost three-dimensional, as if floating in the space.

Also important in this are the large dimensions of the canvases and the absence of frames, which allow the viewers to completely immerse themselves in the color field. The process of perceiving Gnamuš’s paintings goes beyond a merely visual experience, becoming a contemplative journey generating a profoundly sensual and spiritual experience. In this respect, the artist taps both into the ideas of Western art and the principles of Buddhist meditation.