Carsten Beck, his own geometry

Carsten Beck, born in Copenhagen in 1986, has been combining the aesthetics of Scandinavian minimalism and references to design mid-century when developing geometric paintings that, when they do not present clear black shapes, combine these with fragments in turquoise, red and mint green. He also finds sources of inspiration in the purification of concrete art and in the abstract compositions of his country's artists Ib Geertsen and Richard Mortensen, while his rigorous (mathematical) work with lines and curves has to do with his careful study of furniture. by Marcel Breuer, Charles and Ray Eames.

Beck also has experience in the fields of illustration, engraving and photography, and it is common for him to use images of architecture as a basis for his pictorial compositions; Also, especially since 2019, the latter are based on sketches made on paper. Starting the following year, and paradoxically despite the pandemic, her production gained international projection since its appearance in the New York magazine ABSTRACT; It was a first step towards its inclusion in international galleries and private collections.

This May and in June, it is the Víctor Lope gallery in Barcelona that exhibits his recent work in the exhibition “Lines of interaction”: in the path of his previous works, he summarizes pieces that emphasize the forcefulness of the minimum, that of a geometry displayed in all its simplicity; rectangles, triangles and circles that align or overlap, which sometimes refer to the aforementioned architectures and which, in turn, reveal enormous attention to detail on the part of this Danish author, practically self-taught (he has trained in graphic design and Web design).

Black and white dominate the chromatic compositions of monumental and medium formats, of only apparent simplicity, meticulously planned in all the details of their execution. In most cases they derive, as the artist has explained, from processes of contemplation that he carries out on long walks: they are born in the act of walking, in the discovery of new routes and, with them, other angles with which to perceive the around. In an almost obsessive way he tries to find novel aspects in the constructions that these forms generate, linear symphonies where only cleanliness and harmony fit, even though achieving formal perfection is far from Beck's objectives, who is more interested in taking the viewer to a terrain that transcends that of appearance, even that of our time frame.

In 2022 he presented his first individual in Víctor Lope; others have been dedicated to the Danish galleries Wolfsen, Alium Gallery, Christoffer Egelund, Sandberg, Albert Contemporary and Benoni; also the Italian gallery Roman Sviridov.