Wednesday, July 10, 2013

The Retro World of Robert LaDuke

Robert LaDuke (born 1961) paints small acrylics that, for some reason, I find both quirky and charming. Actually, that "some reason" probably has to do with the fact that the 1920s and 1930s greatly interest me. LaDuke states that his interests lie in the 30s and the 1940s and the objects he depicts are largely derived from toys of the 1930s.

There isn't much information about LaDuke on the Internet. A snippet is here, and a brief interview is here (scroll down). Read them to get a notion of where (he says) he's coming from.

A number of images of his paintings can be found in this Dieselpunk link. A few others are below:

Gallery

Northbound
The airplane is a Gee Bee racer from the early 1930s. We'll be seeing more of it.

Diver
Swan
Swimming
LaDuke, like the composer Jacques Offenbach, does not hesitate to recycle his own material.

Clipper

Mercury

Solitude

1 comment:

Kate said...

Just found both LaDuke and your blog. Fabulous art, gives me hope for the future of art in general. Agree with your introductory comments about modernism. Keep writing, please.