Copyright 2005
Most decorators traditionally recommend a minimalist décor for
many spaces, particularly small spaces such as apartments and
guest houses. Unfortunately, many people believe that this
means that the walls should be kept completely bare for a
minimalist décor to work. Aren't pictures too flashy for a
minimalist décor?
Art Prints: Perfect Complement to a Minimalist Decor
In a word: no, pictures are not too flashy to use with a
minimalist décor. In a few more words: art prints are not too
flashy for a minimalist décor, as long as you select your
prints carefully. In fact, in rooms with minimalist decor, art
prints add character and highlight the fact that the decor
really is minimalist and not just neglected.
The trick with choosing art prints carefully is just to pick
one print, or pick a few prints on a highly related subject or
in a similar style, preferably all by the same artist. In a
room with minimalist décor, the prints will easily get more
attention than anything else in the room, so you want to be
careful that the prints do not conflict with each other. An
obvious example: if you really like Monet's paintings of water
lilies, you could get several prints each of a different Monet
painting of water lilies.
There is a special concern if your décor is not just minimalist
but strikingly modernist (for instance, lots of simple furniture
with clear angles or curves rather than carved woodwork). In a
room with a particularly modernist décor, prints that are from
an earlier era might seem out of place. Go with prints that
were created more or less in the era in which your furniture
was designed, or in which your furniture's design was most
popular.
Obviously, there is a lot of room for personal judgment as to
what goes with what, since modernist anything always was
designed not to look as though it belonged to a particular
period of time. It can be even more confusing if your
modernist-looking furniture was really just designed to look
spare in a general way rather than to hark to a particular
school of design. In those cases, just try to go for something
that looks like it matches, sticking to prints of artworks that
are modern but that are not immediately recognizable as
belonging to a specific decade.
If your furniture leans toward the 1950s and 60s style of
modernism (the kind of playful curves that would be at home in
a room with a sunburst clock on the wall), try prints of the
work of a period artist such as Jackson Pollack. If your
décor's modernism leans toward the seventies or eighties (e.g.,
glass-topped coffee tables and very spare design, you might be
better off with Jasper Johns than Jackson Pollack.
Choosing Art Prints for Rooms with Multiple Colors
* Minimal does not necessarily mean subdued. Just look at the
vibrant paintings of modern artist Mondrian, such as "Broadway
Boogie Woogie", composed entirely of interlocking rectangles,
square, triangles, and circles. If you'd like to keep your
décor simple even with a striking color scheme, art prints can
actually help. Here's why:
* Art prints pull together disparate colors in a room. A print
gallery or website will be able to recommend the best art print
based on the colors in your room. Some sites even have search
engines that match a room's color scheme with appropriate art
prints.
* When the furnishings in a room attract attention art prints
make sure the walls provide visual interest, too, so the eye is
not pulled relentlessly downward toward the furniture or rugs.
Of course, you have to be careful not to give people a
headache. As a rule of thumb, the more riotous the play of
colors on the ground, the more orderly the play of colors on
the walls should be. If the vibrant colors of your furnishings
tend to swirl together, lend the room calm with artwork that
takes those colors and presents them in neat lines and blocks.
* Art prints make it clear that your colorful décor is a
well-rhymed composition, not just a loud burst of color.
Visitors to your pad who see a blue couch, red end tables, and
yellow lamps might well wonder what you were thinking--until
they see a print of "Broadway Boogie Woogie," or other artwork
that shows how these disparate colors really do belong
together.
* In the end, there is beauty in the simplicity of a room with
a minimalist interior design, and there is beauty in the art
that takes the same simple approach. If you keep that fact in
mind when choosing artwork for your minimalist room, you can
make sure your décor is more than minimally beautiful.
About The Author: Joel Walsh has written a buying guide for art
prints at: http://www.a1-paintings.com?%20oil%20paintings
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