The Art Squared Collection

The idea for Art Squared first came to me back when I was studying art history. Even though I loved classical paintings, I preferred a more modern aesthetic. And while decorating my home, I found that hanging copies of some of the old classics didn’t really work alongside contemporary décor. So I began to wonder if there was a way to capture some of what I loved about these works and render it in a modern form.

The result is Art Squared. The process is one of careful and deliberate abstraction to a grid of five by seven squares that seeks to capture the colours of the original work along with something of the composition. It is not a case of simply pixellating old paintings – which gives a crude result full of meaningless browns and greys – but rather a precise reframing and recolouring in order to create pleasing compositions that work on their own, irrespective of whether a viewer knows anything about the paintings on which they are based.

So, in making these prints, I didn’t feel burdened by the need to represent the original paintings too closely. I wanted to produce something new, albeit strongly inspired by art that’s old, familiar and loved.

Peter Dean, London, 2018