Art Deco Nude – 02-10-22 (sold)

Golden Age Syndrom?

This graphite pencil drawing ‘Art Deco Nude – 02-10-22’ follows after the (tentative) completion of my Darja Collins series. After doing her last portrait I thought it was time to return to my Art Deco series. It increases in number steadily even though I am a bit worried about the old fashioned title. I certainly have no desire to become an artist suffering from the golden age syndrom or am I? As an artist I am supposed to be a representative of my time and capture that, Baudelaire would have agreed. How is it that I don’t feel that? Is it sheer repulsion by modern times with its endless repetition of street patterns and company logos? Might it be the attraction to an age gone by in which the love for art and craft still counted? It might be a push and a pull altogeher.

Art Deco’s Definition

So I did a bit of self diagnosis by reading a book on Art Deco. At the beginning there was an interesting definition. It says: “Geometric styling of naturalistic forms with a degree of abstraction and streamlining. As a natural consequence it flows from bringing them back to the essence geometrically.” Suddenly I realized that I have been doing that for the last decade or so. There is nothing included in that definition that I didn’t fully live up to. Besides that, I certainly like the phrase ‘art deco’. It sounds chique and nowadays art deco bears that costly shiny golden patina. Hmmm, let’s keep the title for the series for a while.

Enter Fabriano Ingres

I quite like the Fabriano Ingres paper. It is a bit whiter and less fluffy than the Hahnemühle variant. Consequently when erasing there tends to be less eraser residue that lingers in the paper. It is a bit smaller though but I don’t mind. I can scan it in under my A4 scanner finally. As to the drawing, I kept it quite simple this time. The reference photo was that good I only had to add the cubist styling. Consequently much of the credit goes to photographer Emile Otto Hoppé, the author of this one. A great opportunity to honor such artists like him. May they be called back to memory grace to my art works.

Pitt Graphite Matt pencil (Faber-Castell) drawing on Fabriano Ingres paper (21 x 28.2 x 0.1 cm)
Artist: Corné Akkers