“It is a total need that the Art of a time matches with the society of the moment,                with it general, economic, intellectual and positive conditions” 

                                              Pierre Francastel

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Art and life together in Jan De Lassen´s work

 

Born in Venezuela artist Jan De Lassen has really got the latin  feeling, he dances salsa, talk languages, has a lot to say, and… not having enough has to say it through his paintings.

His paintings are a combination of styles, very colorful, and his characters express a lot through the eyes. Different people from diverse ethnical groups mingle in his paintings as the result of traveling a lot , living in diverse locations and caring for people. 

He uses wood for his sculptures that are basically Totems inspired by primitive cultures. His paintings, specifically acrylics are a source of bringing shining colors to his canvases and to convey his messages. 

The messages of De Lassen have to do with a world of symbols,  from different cultures, and of his own. He inserts them in the paintings to complete a message that is a combination of elements of his own world with  European, latin and middle eastern subjects.

Jan De Lassen is based in Barcelona, a perfect city for him that combines the mountain with the sea, the latin spirit with Europe, and as he is always reinventing himself,  his paintings also do. He has done a complete study of Barcelona from the air and resulted in an abstract figuration that we cannot define the boundaries of abstraction and figuration. 

He started his work being realistic and  illustrative.  He did some work for storyboards in advertising, illustrations and participated in painter’s encounters and Biennials in Caracas.

 

Later he started to work influenced by the Antique Egyptian Art when he moved to Cairo to work in the local Radio as an announcer. He was also an illustrator for IBA that ublished “Egypt Today” the most famous magazine for ex-patriates. 

He was fascinated by the pharaonic Art and started to  create his own stories in the paintings, based on his own Latin culture, combine with the local people, its corners, a beautiful chromatic  experience in formats inspired by the profiles and hieroglyphics from the past.

He developed his work in Caracas, Venezuela, London, Cairo, Barcelona, visiting China, Vietnam, seeing all this as an experience to influence his Art.

His paintings talk about prosperity, abundance, love, nature, animals, in order to create a consciousness about the beautiful world despite all the chaos that we are living today and to exorcise the bad for the good. 

Concluding his work is a new figuration, with a message of symbols. They are full of colors and elements from nature and the history of mankind, under a brilliant palet of colors.

 

Totems. 

Wood abstract wooden structures inspired in ancient cults that talks about the family of mankind

 

Illustrations.

He did some graphic work for magazines in Caracas and Cairo. Also illustrated some books in Barcelona and advertising material

 

Watercolors.

He did some sketches and water colors in his trips around the world. Vietnam, China, Kenya, Cairo, the deserts, the sea, the jungle.

 

Acrylics

The essence of his works, he developed a unique technique based on the narration performed by the profiles of his characters, talking about a space and an specific time. Every painting is a reflection of its own moment.

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