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STILL-LIFES 1957 -
1960
1957 - 1960
The three year
period from 1957 to mid 1960, was in several ways a difficult transition
for Skov. At the half-century mark of his life, he now found himself in a
quite similar position to that of many of his contemporaries: grown
children that were still in the midst of the educational system, seriously
constrained economic conditions, and the occasional age related demand for
major health care. His physical
constitution up until then had always been excellent, and he had always
maintained close to his ideal weight; but during this period he
nevertheless had to have several surgical operations for the removal of
kidney and bladder stones.
In order to
maintain the economic balance for his family, with three children in high
school and college, Skov turned to commercially paying work; first seasonal
and part time decorative projects in connection with industrial and
international exhibitions and sports events, later interior painting and
redecoration, and finally, in 1958, full time work with Hempel Industries
in Copenhagen. Meanwhile, Isabella had taken up a teaching position as
sports and gymnastics instructor with the Copenhagen school system in order to help balance the books
and to have a personal challenge, now that the children were grown. Towards
the end of the nineteen-fifties, as first the oldest son, and two years
later also the second son graduated, both leaving the nest to travel
overseas, the financial demands finally eased up. Time permitting during
this period, however, Skov continued to work along the same artistic path
he already had established during the preceding ten or more years; an
unpopular, unappreciated path, as he by then had fully realized to be in
the context of the totally anti-cubist Danish art establishment.
During this period,
Skov derived inspiration for his paintings less from any individualistic or
poetic interest in the intrinsic and momentary beauties of his motifs, than
from his continued wish to challenge, and be challenged by, the intricacy
of composition, and, in particular, the spatial relationships between the
objects constituting the motif, when approached and treated in accordance
with his Neo-cubist aesthetic perception. When he selected his motifs, he
looked for the visual challenges in the everyday things he saw around his
house and on his walks about town.
Skov was engaged in
describing reality accurately and truthfully
by means of using the telling, often minute, details of the motif.
Regardless
of the conventional ordinariness of an object, for example, one of
the
every-day groceries or kitchen utensils, his visual characterization
often
went considerably beyond just the structure, color and location of
the motif,
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