Sculptures of the world's most boring flowers that touch the quickest

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

The Belgian artist and sculptor Hans Po De Beek creates his works intentionally in one color - an inconspicuous, inexpressive gray. It is not easy for the modern layman, who is entertained from every corner with bright advertisements, on whom tons of visual information fall every day, it is not easy to focus on the essence, and not on the "external colorful wrapper". Which of the spectators can see beauty not in ideality and not in an inviting bright palette?

Hans Op de Beek (Hans Op de Beeck) has been in business for 20 years, and over this long period of time his work has acquired a clear concept. It is interesting for him to play with the perception of the viewer, to provide his attention with such objects of art that would be at the same time easily recognizable for the visitor, but at the same time completely new. Hans creates videos, watercolors, but most of all he became known for his sculptures - monochrome, but at the same time extremely expressive.

In order to be able to interact with the audience as much as possible, the artist literally makes them plunge into his world: Hans creates whole worlds in which sculptures of people and objects are created in full size, but the material from which they are made is not always obvious. Because of the deliberate one color scheme, he forces all parts of his installation - videos, photographs, drawings and sculptures - to play in unison. In some of his works, the artist even included more interactive elements - opera, dance and theater.

Han Op de Beek deliberately plays with color not only because of the oversaturation of kitsch in the modern world, but also opposing himself to the works of Flemish masters, who have become classics for his home country. If the masters of oil painting of the 15th-16th centuries were inherent in a complex system of many transparent and translucent layers of paint, which allowed them to achieve incredibly rich color and a special luminosity of the picture, then Hans's works reach the same level of saturation, referring exclusively to gray, black and white.

In our photo review "The beauty of monochrome" you can see the works of the winners and finalists of the Black + White Photographer of the Year 2018 competition.