Modern + Classical = Unique Contemporary

Collectors photo featuring Tomasz Rut's art - LUMINARIS

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Have you seen a traditional interior decorated with pop or abstract art? Most likely, you have. And have you seen a modern space featuring classical paintings? Maybe. Or maybe not so much.

We live in the times of trends and fads accelerated by the advertising machines of Internet and social media in addition to fashion magazines and TV. What’s in vogue one day becomes old news tomorrow, sometimes with lighting speed. And don’t we all try to keep up with the latest?

There is nothing wrong with innovation. After all, it brings us not only many new useful products, but also a superabundance of choices, if only by adding new to the old ones. And they all end up coexisting in our contemporary realm.

Collectors photo featuring Tomasz Rut's art - MONA

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ARPEGGIO and SI VERO DANTE DEO

Collectors photos featuring Tomasz Rut's art

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Artist's Residence

But following a trend or a fad in the name of progress has little to do with innovation. Rather, it connotes a loss of individualism and embraces Orwellian collectivism, wherein mass culture is blindly followed for the sake of the elitist. And as we ‘trend’ to look more or less the same, wearing top advertised brands, driving newest car models and dining in trendy restaurants in an effort to be seen as ‘progressively’ different, we illustrate a picture perfect irony of the pop-culture.

Indeed, pop-art has thoroughly tackled the subject already. There’s not much to add. It’s humor and irony, though still engaging, is no longer unique. Instead, the mass produced pop message becomes no more than a sad commentary on the protested loss of its subscriber’s individuality. “I am different if I am one of ‘them’” is hardly a justification for collecting Warhol or his endless lookalike followers.

Of course, nobody needs to justify their taste, in art or otherwise. One can argue whether we live in truly tolerant society, but one is certainly free to express one’s differences. So why not splurge on being unique?

More paintings of Tomasz Rut featured in modern interiors

Contemporary doesn’t mean pop or abstract or modern. It’s not a trend. As the name suggests, it embraces not only the novelties, but also anything that exists or occurs in the present. And any form of art can become a fad of tomorrow.

Classical art has been around for millennia and despite the all-out assaults from 20th century avant-garde propaganda, neither lost its significance nor disappeared from the contemporary scene. To the contrary, it can be seen surging back in popularity with unique new renditions, while it’s the modern art’s legacy that nowadays brings us degraded, non-innovative repetitions and continues to promote self-abnegation.