Bo Larsen, TWENTIES – golden? – Paintings

Bo Larsen, TWENTIES – golden? – Paintings

From 24 June 2023, we will be presenting paintings by the German-Danish and Berlin based artist Bo Larsen (*1986). Under the title TWENTIES – GOLDEN?, the painter is showing abstract works in which he deals painterly with the 1920s of this and the last century.

In Germany, the Golden Twenties were the period between 1924 and 1929 and stand for a heyday of German art, culture and science and, especially in Berlin, for an open, liberal society and a frivolous and licentious nightlife. Before that, life was marked by the end of the First World War, the worst influenza pandemic in history up to that time, hyperinflation and political unrest and upheaval. The parallels to today are striking: pandemic and Ukraine war, inflation and economic crisis – and climate change to boot.

For Bo Larsen, Berlin – then as now a pulsating metropolis – glitters like a star above the supposed sunny side of (night) life. In fact, however, the gold coating of the Reichs- or federal capital is flaking off and only conceals a multi-class society that – each for themselves – try to master the vagaries of the times.

In his new paintings, Bo Larsen turns his back on the garish colours of his last NEON series and brings gold leaf, impact metals, iron powder and oxidants to the canvas alongside oil and acrylic paints. With the combination of these materials, the artist creates works with which he visualises the attitude to life, prosperity and success, but also the rapid rise and fall, superficiality, transience and decay, as well as the associated fears and hopes of these two decades.

For Bo Larsen, the process of painting involves several operations: after applying a metallic background, e.g. goldchrome, he runs iron or copper binder over the canvas in the pouring technique he has already used in his NEON series and works it with an oxidising agent. This creates real rust and copper chips, whose further development is stopped by the artist with a varnish when they have reached what he considers to be the right “maturity”. Oil paint is squeegeed over these surfaces and finally accents are added with gold leaf and impact metals.

Colourful pictures like GROSSSTADT, on which cheerful life pulsates and literally foams over, contrast with pictures like VERSAILLES, on which darkness is passing over golden times – or is it hope that glitters on the horizon in front of the supposed abyss? Other works, such as HOPE, show the contrast of the rather cheerful and colourful oil paint against the rusty-oxidised background, which in DANDY’s case, befitting its title, seems downright perky.

Looking at the “TWENTIES – golden?” paintings opens a small window from the present into the past and back again and gives us an inkling that not only the present, but also show that all that glitters is not gold …

More information on Bo Larsen here.