'What Does Love Smell Like?' By Patrik Svensson

'What Does Love Smell Like?' By Patrik Svensson

Category: Economy and Minimalism

Patrik Svensson embraces minimalism in this piece of work ‘What does love smell like?’ Using just two colours and a handful of lines Svensson has stripped the human portrait to the extent where the image is purely “simplified and regularized lines” (34) yet it holds “subjectivity and symbolism”(35). The lines in red demonstrate a silhouette of two faces that are so simplified they become to look alike, demonstrating the ‘symbolism’ of ‘love’ as two figures reflect each other. This is what Svensson intended as you can see in the image title. The red lines then lead to the shapes which form the basis of a very basic eyes and nose. It is considered that “the minimal suggested a radical formal simplification – a negation of all that was once considered ‘essential ’in a work of art.” (36) Svensson has cleverly taken advantage of this. As you can see in the selection of red lines on the left of the image, Svensson has painted one small line to symbolise eyelashes, representing a woman. The selection of red lines on the right do not have this line, indicating a man. He has studied the portraits and chosen to only include the information of those characters that he believes to be the most vital part of their outline. Although the simplified image hasn’t got a lot happening, the image is still intriguing. Svennson continues with the theme of “minimum operating means” (37) with the tea stained background which gives the image a comforting sense of completion as the different shades blend together making the whole image a strong piece of art.

References:
(34) Strickland. E (1993) Page 23
(35) Strickland. E (1993) Page 34
(36) Meyer. J (2001) Page 85
(37) Strickland. E (1993) Page 19