VISUAL ARTIST

                      LOVE BEAUTY

As Susan Sontag writes in Against Interpretation, there are several ways to let the beauty of the form speak, unobstructed by content. “To avoid interpretation art might become parody (…), abstract, decorative or (…) non-art.” Depending on the kind of beauty I am invited to discover, I may eventually take each of those roads. By abstracting objects and subjects from their context, I try to see if what they are ‘in themselves’ becomes visible. Sometimes by the example of pop art, I chose a subject so simple and clear that there is no place for interpreting it. Other times, by looking at iconic traditional paintings, emptying their picture plane I relieve them from content and help formal beauty win over conceptual beauty.

My motivation to paint is to see new beauty. This I need not only to keep myself happy, but to seduce myself into existence. Ideally the work would seduce the viewer as well into living, by convincing him, that reality can be the way we make it, that live can be good and beautiful. There is a system of symbols in my body of work, which by topological connections reflect my philosophy about truth and goodness. But no one needs to know that. The only reason for this symbolic and intellectual aspect of my work to exist, is to set me in motion. I am convinced that the formal aesthetic qualities of a work of art communicate about truth and goodness on a level much more direct and unobstructed by preconceptions and free associations, that content could ever be able to communicate.

To me, my paintings are like What a Way to Go, my favorite Hollywood musical of the 60’s. The story there is so simple and straightforward that you aren’t left with anything else but to enjoy the beautiful moving pictures, the fashion, dance and charming Shirley MacLaine. You are left with nothing, but to appreciate the form in itself. The story there is so absurd and improbable, that the necessary distance for aesthetic appreciation is immediately and effectively achieved.