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exhibited only in France. Several of the Danish art critics who generally
were quite conservative and skeptical regarding the contemporary modern art
nevertheless wrote very complimentary reviews about Skov’s accomplishments,
acknowledging his artistic creativity and the competency of his
compositions, and seeing originality in his sense of color.
The comments by the
senior Danish art critic, Kai Flor, seemed particularly meaningful for
Skov. He seemed to be able to discern and understand Skov’s individual path
of artistic development towards what he called “incipient abstraction” painted with “cubes like large playing-blocks”, actually foreshadowing
Neo-cubism. Also, his appreciation of Skov’s unique achievements with the
effects of colors provided welcome encouragement and sensitive feedback: “Amusing Painter - The young painter
from Bornholm, Rasmus
Skov, who is exhibiting at Alfred Andersen’s Galleries at this time,
follows his own path entirely. Possibly one will feel that he is
reminiscent of Lundstroem, but the only similarity is that Rasmus Skov also
paints abstract. The houses in his paintings are treated as cubes like
large playing-blocks and an inlet to a harbor looks like a lathe. It is in
France he has learned and seen the art he is now developing, and which he
has arrived at through an emphasis on decorative painting like found in his
earlier pictures of a ‘Road lined with Trees’ and ‘Sunflower’. Particularly
the latter work with incipient abstraction in the form and the intense
color glow show his intentions in that direction. It is the cube and its
light and shadow he defines as his challenge. And it is his achievement,
that he can get the colors of his paintings to shine almost blindingly,
while having the form of the object collaborate with its shadow as a single
well constructed unit. The decorative detail occasionally takes part, as in
the still-life with the strongly patterned chair. Otherwise it is pictures
such as ‘House-fronts against the Sun’ and ‘Fortifications’ that are
characteristic of his strongly composed, sturdily colored, clear forms.”
[Kai Flor, Berlinske Tidende, Copenhagen; 12* March, 1939, With
illustration “Portrait of Author, Dr. Norman-Hansen”, 1937, Catalogue
#37-49]. Skov had met Vilhelm
Lundstroem, the Danish painter mentioned by Flor, in Cagnes in 1930 and
again in Paris in 1938. He was well-known in Copenhagen and recognized as one of only a few Danish proto-cubist-abstract painters;
and he had for many years exhibited at Alfred Andersen’s Gallery.
Commenting on Skov’s
March 1939 exhibition, the art critic Else Kai-Sass also remarked on his “sense of form” and “entirely sophisticated color effect”
and provided additional observations regarding his artistic originality,
competency and genuine craftsmanship:
“Much is said about the incapability of modern painters. That may be right
in some cases, but there are exceptions. The painter Rasmus Skov, who
exhibits for the first time in Denmark at Alfred
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