Surrealism and depth: interesting works by a talented self-taught artist from Denmark

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

Among contemporary artists, you can more and more often find masters who do not have a specialized education. Due to various circumstances, these people could not immediately connect their lives with creativity, but came to this later. Many of them even managed to realize themselves in another profession. So it happened with the talented Dane John Reuss, the author of stunning, somewhat dark surreal paintings.

John Reuss is from Denmark. The future artist was educated in the field of computer science and design, but once he realized that only painting could become the work of his whole life. “Despite the fact that I am self-taught,” says the artist, “I have studied a lot of works on the history and technique of painting. Speaking about my own style, I think that it is rather a kind of fusion of trends and trends. In my youth I tried to draw - perhaps, out of that little experience, my current style "grew". I like working with natural elements, diluting them with abstractions. Someone sees in my work echoes of impressionism and surrealism, but I believe that my work is more inspired by expressionism. My works are a kind of eclectic mixture of styles and trends, but as for the technique … Rather, it is a kind of symbiosis of classical and modern painting and, of course, experiments."

Many people pay attention to the fact that Reuss's work is somewhat gloomy. This impression is created mainly due to the color scheme that the artist chooses. “I think I came to the choice of colors in several stages. I didn’t consciously choose a particular palette, however, looking back, I begin to realize that I have used approximately the same shades for a long time. Since I have always worked intuitively, I never paid attention to it. As a result, all the characters I portray have a slightly sallow, unhealthy skin color. This is the theme of sickness and death. You will definitely not find youngsters bursting with health, rosy-cheeked,”explains the artist.

Indeed, if you start to analyze the work of Reuss, you will notice that his main themes are alienation, loneliness, oblivion, illness and solitude. “The theme of orphanhood, loneliness and alienation arises in my paintings, largely because of my own emotional perception of life. As far back as I can remember, I have always felt like a stranger. Even as a child, I always distanced myself from other children and sought solitude. It always seemed to me that I was different from the rest. I liked watching people, but not interacting with them in any way,”the artist explains.

Apparently, it is the creative process that is the best way to observe people. The lack of direct interaction, however, does not prevent the artist from penetrating into the psychology of people, and through the psychology of people - to get close to the psychology of the universe. Sometimes his work is called "existential surrealism." The artist likes this definition. More of the artist's work can be seen here.