Swedish artist Urban Larsson (b. 1966) paints in the tradition of the old Flemish masters, and it's foremost his portraits that has given him his international reputation. He has portrayed Queen Silvia of Sweden and King Willem and Queen Maxima of the Netherlands among others.
Genre mixing and crossing all kinds of borders is since the dawn of modernism and postmodernism routine in contemporary art. Everything is allowed and the painter may as well use a computer and film camera as paint and brush in his practice.
It's difficult to profile yourself in such a climate. One way is to embrace the traditional artist role and join a centuries-old tradition where the pure craft is in focus. Will you be popular amongst the art establishment? Probably not.
Larsson has a solid education - at Studio Cecil & Graves in Florence - and he makes a great deal out of not using any photographic sources.
Urban Larsson, who's been residing in Amsterdam for two decades, has not been visible in the debate on modernism contra cultural conservatism, but writes on his website that he strives "for beauty and universal human values". In Italy and the Netherlands it's not quite as controversial to pursue traditional painting and preserve the historical legacy as it is elsewhere.
It's Larsson's portraits that stand out. The landscapes - of course painted en plein air - are a bit stiff and the proximity to predecessors such as Camille Corot becomes more troublesome.
One of Larsson's most interesting portraits is the painting of Christina Lee Brown and her big family of a total of 17 people. Each individual was portrayed in either oil or coal and was then hung up in the artist's studio where the final picture was painted. It has become a picture that, unlike his other portraits, has a conceptual dimension. Otherwise, Larsson's portraits are as much seductive eye candy as they are impressive displays of virtuoso, painted in a style where Singer Sargent represents a clear reference point.
His still-lifes are also tidbits of delight, with silky transitions between light and shadow. But they would probably be even more interesting and dynamic with a some more blackness and some form of ambiguity and divergency. But why complain? Beauty matters, more than ever, and in an age of ugliness a work of beauty is an act of defiance.
