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.

The most exceptional interiors I’ve seen contrast the extremes of traditional and modern. A truly creative design is not in piling together trendy ‘stuff’ or following one particular style, but in combining the elements of different styles in a harmonious way that lets them compliment each other.

Sotheby's confirms it through one of their articles

In an elegant Puck Penthouse, Master Paintings such as Antonio Joli’s view of 18th-century Rome and Lucas Cranach the Elder’s La Bocca Della Verità were installed with contemporary design objects. Photo by Evan Joseph. (Source: Sotheby's)

Architect-Designer Jean Michel Gathy who is the master behind some of the world's most iconic luxury hotels, resorts and landmarks makes his point.

Classical giant mural in a contemporary bedroom (Source: Pinterest)

Interior designer David Bastos shares the vision

Interior by David Bastos (Source: Belle Vivir)

Classic portrait with Op Yellow Chair

(Source: www.alyos.eu)

Interior designer Jean-Louis Deniot embraces the same concept

(Sources: deniot.com, Koket, Sukio Design Co, Designer's Block UK)

Interior designer Raji Radhakrishnan follows

Classical mural in contemporary condo-living room (Sources: roohome.com and RajiRM & Associates)

Another Radhakrishnan mural (Source: The New Victorian Ruralist)

The prestigious RALPH LAUREN brand holds on to class even when it comes to home decor

(Sources: ralphlauren.com and Luxury Furniture & Design)

Even though the vastly monotonous ‘developments’ and cookie-cutter shells of contemporary architecture may tend to lack personality and invite repetition, we can still decorate them in a unique way, attesting to our originality and ability to raise above the ebbs and flows of changing trends in recognizing the timeless valors of the old and the new which will always coexist.

After all, modern and classical can live, side by side, in perfect harmony.

Unique contemporary bathroom

(Source: A modern home)

Contrast (Hotel Providence - Paris, France)

(Sources: Hotel Providence and Atelier Doré)

Poetic interior

(Source: Diane likes art)

Industrial brick loft condimented with gorgeous classical art

(Source: Pinterest)

BOTTEGA VENETTA home collection (Palazzo Gallarati Scotti - Milan, Italy)