Foreword from the book “Urban Larsson Paintings 1991-2006”
“We have had a gutful of fast art and food. What we need more of is slow art: art that holds time as a vase holds water: art that grows out of modes of perception and making whose skill and doggedness make you think and feel; art that isn’t merely sensational that doesn’t get its message across in 10 seconds, that isn’t falsely iconic, that hooks onto something deep-running in our natures.” (Extract from art critic Robert Hughes’ speech at a Royal Academy dinner in 2004)
In our times of constantly changing new fast techniques and engaging digital visual explosion it is obviously anachronistic to engage in the slow and painstaking process of making oil paintings which are trying to be subtle, silent and inspire reflection. But maybe just because of this anachronism it is important and meaningful.
Many people ask me to give the paintings I do a name or style. In our world where art has no boundaries and there are more “isms” than painters, one way of describing it is “Traditional realism”. “Traditional realism” is not a realism which is self-taught, nor does it originate from modern art, and nor is it based on photographs. The basis of it is the visual study of nature, the visual language and techniques from artists of earlier centuries, and the concept of beauty. This might seem constraining, but as history has shown, the personal interpretation of this “grammar” by the artist and his own expression, makes it quite the opposite.
Andy Warhol, an icon of the post war art scene, once said “The course of art history would be changed if one thousand students could be taught Old Master drawing and painting techniques.” A wish from an ever growing international number of young artists over the last 20 years to learn how to paint in a traditional manner has resulted in a movement of professional artists reviving the techniques and visual language of painters from earlier centuries, reintroducing the concept of beauty and creating works of art which are visually and spiritually enriching.
It is a quiet group, working out of the limelight of the mainstream cultural institutions. Their increasing success and praise from the public are not measured by shock, controversy or hype, but rather through the silences and reflection their art inspires, and their increasing exposure at important galleries and museums worldwide. The course of art history has not of course been changed, but the art scene today is definitely broadening its horizons. We are still out of the mainstream, but I guess this book is one of the examples of how things have changed during the last couple of years.”