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In part, he shared the view of Kasimir Malevich, founder of
Suprematism in Moscow, who wrote: “The
representation of an object, in itself [the objectivity as the aim of the
representation], is something that has nothing to do with art, although the
use of representation in a work of art does not rule out the possibility of
its being of a high artistic order. For the suprematist, therefore, the
proper means is the one that provides the fullest expression of pure
feeling and ignores the habitually accepted object. The object in itself is
meaningless to him; and the ideas of the conscious mind are worthless.
[...] and thus art arrives at non-objective representation” [ref. Die
gegenstandslose Welt, Bauhausbucher 11, 1927]. Except, of course, that
Skov felt it was necessary to maintain the vital lifeline to the
motif-object, in one form or another, because otherwise communications
between the painter and viewer would be seriously limited to only
compositional and decorative values; and in addition the dual challenges of
defining reality [however elusive] and selection of a perception of reality
[however personal] would have been abandoned. Besides, he had already
demonstrated to his own satisfaction that he certainly knew how to create
exquisite compositions, even while under the constraint of retaining
figurative representation in his paintings, and that he therefore was equal
to the challenge.
In Aarsdale, Skov
accepted that, in spite of that the aesthetic logic of his pictorial
objectives had been entirely satisfied in his La Colle paintings - and
regardless that these results were original and sophisticated and were
characterized as both innovative and promising by the reviewers of his
exhibitions - the resulting visual sense of static pictorial flatness could
not satisfy his need for a fuller, less confining expression of reality.
Spurred on by his successful achievement of this at once satisfying, yet at
the same time excessive flatness in his paintings, he now reacted to his
own demand for providing a sculptural dimension to his objects and yet did
not want to invite illusionistic space back into his painting. He,
therefore, recognized the need to find a new way to resolve this aesthetic
dichotomy.
A few weeks after
returning to Bornholm, Skov spent a month alone
at Christiansoe, a tiny rocky islet about an hour by boat east of
Svaneke, which is host to some old fortifications, a dozen fisher families
and a navigation light tower. Since leaving La Colle he had been occupied
with practical matters, including his exposition in Paris in May, the return trip with the family to visit
his parents in Strib and the resettling in Aarsdale. And he had therefore
not had any time to concentrate on painting and to find his way out of the
position he had arrived at in France.
During these first
weeks alone on Christiansoe, while painting the local motifs, the
fortifications, houses and people, he formulated his approach for his next
phase of work, which perhaps can best be described as an amalgamation
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