The first thing to say about the new James Hugonin show at the Ingleby, is that you simply cant begin to understand these works from their reproductions – the impact of these paintings can only be experienced in person. When you stand in front of one of these large, colour-field paintings, almost immediately, a beguilingly rhythmic movement begins to pulse in front of you. Patterns slowly come to the fore and recede, and ripples of different tones drift across the picture plane. Flecks of colour appear, blink and disperse, like walking past a glass building on a bright day. It is quite simply captivating.

These works are part of a series of eighteen, which has taken Hugonin the best part of two decades to complete. The timescale of these works, averaging a year each, is an exemplification of their complexity and painstaking technique – one which James kindly takes time out of installing his show to discuss with me.

The trance induced by these works is, of course, far from accidental, but in fact, the result of a rigorously pre-planned formula. Each work is preceeded by a ‘score’ written by James – a unique formula strategically worked out in notebooks full of numerical charts and notations. Before beginning a work, he first traces out a stringent grid of interlocking, evenly-spaced squares, and then begins to map out the precise structure which his painting will take.  The unique effect is derived from the arrangement of elliptical shapes, laid out so as to create repeated illusions of fluctuation throughout the picture.

Talking to him, it becomes staggeringly clear just how much intense calculation is required to achieve the harmonised equilibrium which his paintings resonant. The mathematical complexity underlying each surface pattern is what causes it to stir into movement and saves them from “looking like wallpaper”. Indeed, the simmering tension in each work makes for captivating viewing, as conflicting shapes battle on a picture plane which threatens to dissolve into a chaos, which never quite climaxes, but resolves itself, effortlessly, into repose. “Everything is uniformed and ordered, and yet, nothing is” James explains.

The Ingleby’s current show displays James’s most recent works against much earlier ones from the eighties, thus allowing a clear sense of artistic progression to be visible throughout the exhibition. Perhaps the clearest indication of his artistic development is the changes in colour schemes of the progressing works. The earliest ones are composed of pale tones from flaxen to beige, paints are mixed to the colour of chamomile tea, or strips of silk organza. Compiled together, these subdued shades contrive to capture dappled sunlight. As the series progresses into later years, the tones begin to assert themselves more boldly, until it seems Hugonin is working with a colour spectrum inspired by a T-shirt rack in Uniqlo. From quasi-neon greens and pinks to gothic black, vibrancy is key. It is a testament to Hugonin’s talent that he succeeds in navigating these colours to a fully co-ordinated blend, where each colour compliments its neighbour. Rather than clashing, the painting is unified and imbued with an irrepressible energy.

The composer Morton Feldman once summarised his music as simply “the right note, at the right time, in the right place”, an idiom which James believes can equally be applied to his paintings. Indeed, this phrase neatly encapsulates his work – sounding deceptively simple, whilst being anything but; it is the utilisation of a densely complicated formula to create works which resonate balance, stillness and calm which is at the heart of Hugonin’s practice.