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FLOWING-LINE
PERIOD
1956 -1957
During a ten months
period starting in late 1956, Skov developed a series of rhythmically
composed paintings that, in their design and compositional approach, were
almost diametrically opposed to his prismatic period immediately preceding
it. Before, he had used relatively few curved lines, and the visualization
of the depicted objects and even space itself, was achieved by a synthesis
of subdivided triangular and trapezoidal planes and faceted prisms. The
appearances of the paintings from these two periods certainly are
strikingly different and it is likely that Skov developed these organically
curved-line compositions in reaction to the visual confinement induced by
the previous prismatic design. This is particularly noteworthy considering
that his Neo-cubist aesthetic goals remained unchanged in both cases:
essentially the same visualization of non-illusionistic space, same desire
for object-and-space integration, and a consistent pursuit for enhancing
the perception of the very act of emergence of the depicted objects from
the plane. Only the means to achieve these results were different.
Skov’s compositions
from the “Flowing-line” period were designed using predominantly
organically curved arabesque and sinusoidal lines. With their free flowing
lines, the paintings incorporate the individual aspects of the depicted
motifs and spatial representation with the compositions in an entirely new
way, resulting in a rhythmical, visually “swinging” unity. This approach
provides a remarkable completeness of integration of the individual
compositions and also results in an unusual, strongly induced visual
perception of compositional movement in the paintings. In fact, these
paintings are quite unlike anything found in Cubism, or any
representational modern art for that matter, and the approach to the
integration of composition with design and space appears to be unique and
entirely original in its conceptualization and execution.
At the culmination
of this period in 1957, Skov designed the spatial elements together with
the contours of the depicted objects as continuous, curved lines
inter-linking with each other and branching into arabesques
that envelop the entire pictorial plane. Some of the lines meet at
triple-point intersections where the unification of the induced perception
of space with
he pictorial plane becomes unequivocal. The major achievement of the
flowing-line period, besides the uniqueness of this pictorial
solution to the
Neo-cubist composition, is the accomplishment of a single unified,
rhythmical sensation by the visual integration, using the
rhythmically,
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