"I'm looking for things that have a metaphorical meaning or a history, and I use them as subjects for my work. My desire is for my abstractions to have a backstory that is historically related, something that is not just abstract. I like my work to have a narrower meaning, especially since 1984, when I painted On Our Land [which pairs the Palestinian flag with an abstract pattern derived from a Suprematist drawing by Ilya Chashnik]."
"I often revisit my work if I think its ideas are still good. I made a version of this painting in 1987 called Bauhaus Looks to De Stijl. This one is called Bauhaus Still Looking to De Stijl. On the left is the profile icon of the Bauhaus designed by Vilmos Huszár. On the right is the Red Blue Chair by Gerrit Rietveld with all the black struts taken out. I'm happy that it can be seen as a face."
"The profile icon is in almost every book on the Bauhaus, and the chair I got from a poster for the Israel Museum. They have a lot to do with each other, historically. People in the Bauhaus became De Stijl members-Huszár was even involved with De Stijl. And I've always thought of Rietveld as being as important as any artist, even though he's known as a chair designer and an architect."
Diao pursues objects with metaphorical meaning or historical associations and treats them as painting subjects. He aims for abstractions that retain historically related backstories and narrower meanings. The 2018 painting Bauhaus Still Looking to De Stijl pairs the Bauhaus profile icon by Vilmos Huszár at left with Gerrit Rietveld’s Red Blue Chair on the right, shown without its black struts and readable as a face. The chair image derived from an Israel Museum poster. Historical links exist between Bauhaus and De Stijl; Huszár engaged with De Stijl and Rietveld’s designs are treated as artistically significant. Several Rietveld chairs in the studio are copies.
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