Happiness | Stanislas Kostka

Historical influences Kostka has touched upon, absorbed and moved on from in an aesthetic pursuit, which has led him toward a new creative elaboration of this old tradition for contemporary audiences. In this, the artist has had no rival in the late-20th century, and he remains the leading floral painter as we open the 21st century.
The linear harmonies of his floral paintings must be ascribed to a relationship between the linear restraint of the internal architecture (geometric underpinning) of the arrangement of blooms, With a flamboyant baroque curvature and bright coloration of the flowers, modelled for dramatic emphasis in an emphatic chiaroscuro light.

Bringing together various flowers that are not necessarily of the same month or location (adding to the textural variety of the bouquet) is a Dutch, 17th century idea.

However Kostka includes in this fancy “flowers of the imagination” – fictions that extend the color range and shape of his compositions.