Neo Deco – 05-01-23

A New Year and Resolutions

This graphite pencil drawing ‘Neo Deco – 05-01-23’ is the first of 2023. Last year I concluded with another work in the roundism style and now it’s time to move on. Let’s see if I can combine styles and come up with something new. However, I am not such a person sticking to New Year’s resolutions necessarily. It’s just that I feel like changing. Surely it has something to do with a statement I made last year. That is bringing the spotlight back on craft and aesthetics.

Another One

Last Christmas I made one under the same title and I was quite content with it. Not in the least because of the hefty dark and light distribution in the reference picture. It also felt as cheating a bit though. There was only so little I could add to the mix but a straight cubist styling. Not bad for spending a Christmas Day at your parents’ home but it tasted like more. I happened to have one more smashing reference picture. Unfortunately I can give no one credit for the photograph even though I google searched for it. Obviously it’s from the 1930s given the hairdo. Fortunately there are tons of art deco-ish pictures to be found on the internet.

Style Naming Doubts

Art Deco and also Jugenstil or Art Nouveau in french almost have become an obsession to me. Hence I read books in bed before sleeping, just to sharpen my mind. Now there are a couple of things bothering me. Sheer copying the style seems daft so I desperately try to relate the styling to modern times. See if I can drive a wedge in today’s modern art. Another aspect is the decorative side. I don’t really see me drawing and painting such patterns or even inventing them. I do not consider myself another Alphonse Mucha. Bleh, perhaps it’s better to call the whole naming thing off and forget about it. Except for the fact I already wrote down the title in this work.

Constructional

As to the actual execution of this piece, I tried to determine simple geometric shapes in the female form. I render them even ostentatiously, yet the overall impression of the light and dark is realistic. It is yet another attempt to force a cross-over in the eyes of the beholder. There is nothing more I want than to show something essential. It’s that beauty and even emotions are constructed by an abundance of more simple forms. Pareidolian Deco?

Graphite pencil (Faber Castell Pitt Graphite Matt pencil 14B) drawing Talens Bristol paper (21 x 29.7 x 0.1 cm)

Artist: Corné Akkers