Cubes in Line, Marko Spalatin (Croatian/American, b. 1945), c. 1970s, serigraph on paper, image 25½ × 20 in., sheet 30½ × 25½ in., titled lower left, numbered 12/50 center, pencil-signed lower right.

Cubes in Line, Marko Spalatin (Croatian/American, b. 1945), c. 1970s, serigraph on paper, image 25½ × 20 in., sheet 30½ × 25½ in., titled lower left, numbered 12/50 center, pencil-signed lower right.

Artwork Description

The most chromatically electrifying of the three Spalatin serigraphs in the Morse Archive — a vertical composition of stacked and interlocking cubes rendered in saturated orange-red against a deep forest green ground that produces an optical intensity bordering on the physical. Where Cube Field spreads horizontally across a serene blue horizon and Channel settles into cool architectural meditation, Cubes in Line surges upward with architectural ambition and chromatic confrontation.

Two vertical columns of cubes rise from the lower foreground toward the upper edge of the composition, their faces rendered in vivid orange-red — the warm planes front-facing, the shadowed planes in a deeper, browned red — while the surrounding and intervening spaces are populated by green cubes and platforms whose three faces are differentiated in deep forest green, medium green, and a vibrant yellow-green. The columns are not perfectly symmetrical — the left stack tilts slightly, its cubes offset in a rhythmic stagger, while the right column rises more vertically — creating a subtle tension between the two that prevents the composition from resolving into simple pattern.

The interplay of complementary colors — red-orange against green — is the painting's central visual event and its most aggressive quality. These are near-perfect complements on the color wheel, and when placed in large flat areas against each other they produce the maximum possible chromatic vibration. The eye cannot simultaneously focus on both fields; it oscillates between them, each color appearing to advance as the other recedes, the boundary between them shimmering with perceptual energy. This is Op Art at its most confrontational — not the gentle spatial ambiguity of isometric grids but the full-intensity assault of complementary contrast.

The composition's vertical format amplifies this energy. The cubes rise like a tower or monument — architectural, aspirational, somewhat monumental — while the rounded corners of the image field soften what might otherwise feel aggressive into something more considered and resolved. The rounded rectangle is a Spalatin signature device, appearing across multiple works in this period, and it functions here to contain the chromatic intensity within a form that reads as designed rather than raw.

The serigraphic execution demonstrates the full technical range the medium affords. The orange-red planes are dense and opaque, the color sitting on the paper surface with almost physical weight. The green values — three distinct tones carefully differentiated — achieve their spatial readings through tonal precision alone, without gradients or atmospheric effects. The registration is flawless throughout.

At edition 12/50 this is an early impression from a small edition — among the first dozen printed — and carries the particular density and freshness of color associated with early pulls in a hand-printed edition.

Artist Biography

Marko Spalatin was born in Zagreb, Croatia and immigrated to the United States in the early 1960s. He earned both a BS and MFA from the University of Wisconsin in Madison Cumberland Gallery — an institution that during the late 1960s and early 1970s was a significant center for printmaking innovation and the development of the American serigraph as a fine art medium.

A leading American Op artist of the 1970s era and beyond, Spalatin came to the United States from Croatia in 1963. Since 1970 his art has been included in major exhibitions in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington, Paris, Montreal, and Beirut. Etsy

Spalatin has been exhibiting his artwork for over 40 years across the US as well as in France, Croatia, Canada, Lebanon, Italy, and Slovenia, and in numerous group exhibitions in 12 countries. Cumberland Gallery

His work is held in an extraordinary roster of permanent collections. His work is found in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art New York, the Tate Gallery, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Musée d'Art Moderne Paris, the Brooklyn Museum, the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Butler Institute of American Art, the Bibliothèque Nationale Paris, and the Library of Congress Washington DC. 1stDibs

Spalatin's work represents a continuous involvement with abstract geometric forms defined by careful manipulation of color and light. Cumberland Gallery In his own words: "The relationship between form and color within the pictorial field demands a visually symbiotic presence. The challenge revolves around the selection of a form as a vehicle for color, as well as choosing appropriate color and light for that form. This interplay creates a primary spatial illusion, along with secondary effects. I find that precisely defined areas of color, when placed against each other, compete for dominance."

The cube series — of which Cube Field is a prime example — dates from the early 1970s and represents the foundational body of work that established Spalatin's international reputation. Reviewed in the New York Times by John Canaday in 1972 and in Art News by Douglas Crimp the same year, his work attracted serious critical attention from the moment it reached New York's gallery circuit. The Cube Field serigraph, with its edition of 50, is among the most sought-after works from this period.

MARKO SPALATIN:  Born in 1945 in Zagreb, Croatia. He is well known for his colorful geometric designs in the form of limited edition prints and also original paintings. The movement of light through the world and across variegated surfaces and the relationship between them, is one of the focal points of Spalatin's work. “In general, my compositions remain formal and symmetrical in order to be set in motion by unexpected mutations of color and light. In some cases, the careful placement of small areas of saturated color against a backdrop of transitional grays creates an illusion of suspended particles. There is no doubt that in these images in particular, my sense of color and light is subconsciously influenced and sustained by many years of scuba diving in the waters of the Adriatic Sea and the Caribbean. I am intrigued by the relativity of color and by the mystery of light, and I am constantly challenged to explore their potentials. Every painting becomes a self-imposed visual problem, subjectively resolved in search of an objective truth.”His work has been featured in over 70 solo exhibitions and is represented in major museums and many private, corporate, and public collections, around the world.