Kasak is an artist of many styles and many commitments, but his art depends upon a consistent and integrated system of perception. His work is clearly recognizable as “Kasak-ian," it belongs to a process or chain of interconnecting artistic reactions, and it opposes the notion of finiteness.
Kasak is often described as a Constructivist in discussions of his paintings, drawings, reliefs, and constructions. Kasak's concern with severe combinations of forms, his economy of materials, and his endeavor to let function determine form draw him close to the esthetic of Constructivism and of geometric abstraction. This was the context in which Kasak's three-dimensional work was presented at the exhibition "Constructivism and the Geometric Tradition" (Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo and other institutions, 1979-81 and, certainly, the association is a legitimate and valid one. Of course, Kasak 's art cannot, ultimately, be accommodated within a single artistic compartment and, at first glance, it might seem to diverge from the elementary formulations of the Constructivists, at least as we have tended to understand them.
Actually, the more closely we examine the pioneer Constructivists, such as El Lissitzky, Alexander Rodchenko, and Vladimir Tatlin, the more we realize that the apparent sobriety of their compositions found an important and exciting compensation in their constant orientation towards what Lissitzky called "Suprematism in World Construction." In other words, an essential task of Russian Constructivism, at least, was to restore an "extra -esthetic'' content to art, to make it part of a transformative, dynamic system that could extend into every aspect of life -whether cups and saucers, architecture and interior design, furniture and clothes. What is often forgotten in the context of the 1920s, however, is that, parallel to this utilitarian trend, a number of abstract artists also gave increasing attention to the philosophical, even religious function of art: Malevich's planetary forms, Kliun's cosmic paintings, for example, injected a spiritual, contemplative quality into raw abstract form, in the same way that Kandinsky, Kupka, Mondrian, and other Russian and European artists were also doing. Kasak seems to support this orientation. For him, the "inner sound,'' as Kandinsky wrote, is of major importance, and just as Kandinsky endeavored to find a perfect balance between inner content and outer form, so Kasak also seeks to harmonize inner and outer spaces in his reliefs and constructions.
Perhaps the kinetic element in Kasak 's work can be regarded as a metaphor for these notions. The moving discs in some of his reliefs transform the structure of the work at any interval of time, ever searching for the true harmony while creating c·ountless potential resolutions. Kasak considers the work of art as the articulation of a spiritual impulse. 1.'his conception may not seem unorthodox, but, in contrast to tradition, Kasak uses mutability and process as his common denominator: in other words, Kasak reverses priorities and focuses attention not on the material result (the static artifact) but on the process of creation. Kasak believes in the transience, not in the permanence of matter, in multi-dimensionality, in eternal movement, and, perhaps unexpectedly, this idea of the temporal meaning or inherent changeability of the particular composition brings him close to the essence of Constructivism.
For Kasak, the painting, drawing, and construction are extensions of visual art on two levels: the integration of certain forms and colors into a totality pleasing to the eye; and also the use of the artifact as an instrument for transmitting the force and energy of spiritual knowledge. The art of Kasak, therefore, is intended to illuminate both our esthetic and our spiritual need. Kandinsky once wrote: ''It seems at times that the path has been lost forever and that it can never be followed again. At such moments a certain individual always comes upon the scene. He is just like one of us, he looks the same as everyone else, but upon him has been bestowed the secret gift of 'seeing'. And in seeing, he reveals.'' Kasak is one such individual.
JOHN E. BOWLT
Kasak in his studio with works from the 40-50's , New York
Though he was not a scientist, my father had and intellectual curiosity about nature, the universe and modern technology. He had an endless fascination and understanding of man's place among them. Though he was not theologian or philosopher, he knew his God and delved into Eastern philosophies, pondered the cosmos and liked to watch Star Trek. He would have found significance in the sun and moon's aligning in the year of his centennial.
My father's work ranges from traditional/classical style, representing a young man following a path taken by others, to a unique and theoretically validated form, that he found as his life and work developed and as he venture from the original trial.
Though complex as an artist and as an intellectual, he was quite utilitarian and. not very demanding of everyday life. He easily saw through and often lambasted or consumer culture. His art sought to reflect the purity and perfection of the universe, sometimes as an ordered chaos and other times with crystalline symmetry, versus immortalizing a soup can.
As father and husband, he tried to instill in us an appreciation of there purity superior, despite the society superficial. He view higher education as the cornerstone for such enlightenment(though not necessarily the source) and relentlessly promoted and supported the pursuit. I looked forward to visits home from college when we would discuss such topics as Newton's Laws, electricity and magnetism, quantum physics and calculus. Perhaps the greatest component of being a teacher is being a student.
As I grow older and mature, the issues and conflicts of daily life, as part of a true artist's family, fall from the tree and blow away (albeit some are quite tenacious). The unmovable trunk and branches remain, of a man who devoted his life, not to create perfection, but just to touch upon it and represent it in his life and work.
Alexander Kasak