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inescapably an exponent of the cultural paradigm of his epoch. He
felt challenged, therefore, to try to find artistic expression for the new
ideology still evolving from the scientific and philosophical discoveries
that were fundamentally changing the understanding of the universe during
the first part of this century. The challenge, in his view, was to have the
painting express a complex intellectual content without diminishing its
aesthetic values. He felt it was necessary to maintain the figurative motif
in his paintings because the reference to recognizable objects, and their
interaction with their surrounding space, is the basis for our sensory
experience. Objects contain indispensable keys to human perception, and the
figurative object in art is essential to meaningful communication about
reality between the painter and the observer. Skov’s search for
universality in art, the most comprehensive perception of reality and the
clearest expression thereof, provided a continuous challenge for his own
lifelong artistic development.
Although Skov’s
oeuvre can be separated into more than a dozen distinct periods, it may be
helpful to recognize the three principal phases. During the first phase,
lasting from 1929 through early 1937, his work is characterized by the
integration of the Cezannian aesthetic influence into his personal approach
to Realism and Impressionism. The second phase, lasting from late 1937
through 1947, incorporated the aesthetics of Fauvism and Cubism into his
art. And during the third and longest phase, from 1948 through 1985, Skov
worked within a Neo-cubist idiom amalgamating Synthetic and Analytic Cubism
and expanding his previous aesthetic vision.
Initially, during
the first phase, Skov formed his aesthetic approach based on a strong admiration
for Impressionism combined with the ideology of the New Realism, which he
had been exposed to during his study in Munich. Even his earliest paintings from 1929, show his
talent as a painter, his sense of color, mature grasp of composition and competent
draftsmanship. The artistic vision and aesthetic qualities of Skov’s work
suggest that he was influenced early by Paul Cezanne, Claude Monet and
Vincent van Gogh. This first major phase of Skov’s work which actually
consists of six separate periods, documents his recurring emphasis on color
and light as a principal artistic challenge while he continues the
development of his aesthetic treatment of the rendition of objects, form
and space. Skov’s artistic development is remarkably stepwise, homogeneous
and progressive, without notable discontinuities; and as he progresses, his
paintings increasingly show his perception of art as a means of personal
expression and less as narrative.
During the second
major phase of his work - a ten year period from 1937 to 1947 that includes
five separate periods - Skov explored the aesthetic,
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