Artist Inspired by Science and Space

“My whole premise was alchemy,” Igor de Kansky said when asked the wellspring of his artwork. “You gather emotions and impressions from the outside world, and you are the mortar and pestle that grinds it up so it comes out as something else.”

In de Kansky’s case, what comes out is lacquered paintings of abstract design and deep luminescence done on hardboard panels. An exhibit of the works opens today at Woodbury University in Burbank and continues through Jan. 24.

Although the surface of the boards is glassy smooth--”Go ahead, touch one,” de Kansky urged as the pieces were being mounted in the school’s gallery--underneath, there is a three-dimensional world of radiant shapes that often resemble celestial objects in deep space.

This is no accident. De Kansky takes his lacquer technique from ancient Chinese artists, but his subject matter frequently includes the exploration of space.

“Malraux says all art has a sacred concept,” explained de Kansky, a native of France who was influenced by writers Andre Malraux and Louis Pauwels. “He was talking about Buddha carvings, the great cathedrals and so on. I consider space exploration the cathedral of today. Science, the penetration of the microcosmos and the macrocosmos, is my religion.”

Like the alchemists of old, de Kansky puts metal in his work. Strips of aluminum and silver foil are roughed up, polished or treated with acid to achieve a desired effect. And like the alchemists, the artist is obsessed with the pursuit of philosophers’ stone--the secret ingredient that turns base elements into gold.

The stones appear literally in de Kansky’s works as rectangular shapes, sometimes solid, sometimes more ethereal. They also are at work figuratively, for the lacquered paintings are as much an exploration of inner as outer space.

“You have your conscious and your subconscious mind,” he said. “There is the smooth surface and, underneath it, a turmoil of colors that are your emotions.”

De Kansky, who was trained in painting in Paris, is in his 50s and lives in Sierra Madre. He produces fewer of the lacquered boards than he once did. The building of layer upon layer of paint and metal is terribly time-consuming, he said. In recent years, he has turned to wood-carving and drawing. Woodbury University, which has a large enrollment of design students, staged an exhibit of de Kansky’s drawings last year.

Works by the artist are on permanent display at several places in Southern California. De Kansky did a ceiling painting at St. Vibiana’s Cathedral in downtown Los Angeles. His pieces also appear at Orthopaedic Hospital in Los Angeles and Claremont McKenna College in Claremont.

“Paintings 1960-1988,” a collection of lacquer paintings done on hardboard panels by Igor de Kansky, opens today in the Boardroom Gallery at Woodbury University, 7500 Glenoaks Blvd., Burbank. The exhibition continues through Jan. 24. A reception is scheduled for 3 to 5 p.m. Sunday. Admission is free and open to the public; gallery hours are noon to 4 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays. Call (818) 767-0888.