Neo Deco – 05-01-24

What 2024 May Bring

With this oil painting ‘Neo Deco - 05-01-24’ I kick off 2024 artistically. Brimming over with ideas it is exciting to see what this year may bring. The Neo Deco Series is expanding gradually and I think I am successfully integrating several aspects of former styles. There is Roundism of which I am the inventor. That one was a culmination of my realist, impressionist and cubist opinions. Elements of Art Deco are the latest addition to the mix. However, in retrospective I see I already incorporated loads of decorative patterns in artworks before. Throughout last year I started to get used to this new title. That is because I think it describes my artistic endeavours best. Roundism was once invented as a badge of honor really. Someone once thought ‘New Cubism’ to be a bit pretentious.

Live Imitates Art

My motivation of forging all these isms into one is starting to make sense more and more. The other day a phrase popped into my head: ‘bring back the style’. Maybe it has got something to do with class and style. Have you ever wondered why there are so many products of high value styled to the max? Somehow that’s not often reflected in visual art. Instead, we’re confronted with rubble piles as art. Perhaps you remember I wrote about this phenomenon before. Art imitates life these days. Surely that would have irritated Oscar Wilde immensely. He stated that life imitates art. I quote: “the self-conscious aim of Life is to find expression. Art offers it certain beautiful forms through which it may realise that energy”. For everyone who agrees to this I hereby offer refuge by means of this painting.

In Every Inch a Beauty

So why would art have to reflect misery, ugliness and confusion in the form of a random flood of images? In this regard this new oil is atypical of this epoque. What are your ideas? Do you concur or do you like trashy art? Let me know. Back to the painting, my last oil ‘Cosmic Dance – 10-12-23’ is a bit similar colorwise to this one. Lately I see there are more possibilities to create subforms within main forms defined by styled contour delineations. This is the big difference between this piece and its precursors Golden Roundism – 03-03-21 and Roundism – 03-01-16. There is a certain evolution. This one resembles more Solarized roundism -07-03-22 and Golden – 18-05-22. The goal is to offer the viewer a beautiful abstract painting in every fragment you focus on.

Oil on linen (60 x 80 cm)
Artist: Corné Akkers