Zdenek Sykora Lot n° 14

Oil on canvas 200 x 200 cm. Signed and dated on the back of the canvas 'Sýkora 85'. Signed, dated and titled on the stretcher 'Nr. 31 1985 Zdenék Sýkora, Nr. 31 1985' and with measurements and address stamp of the artist. - With studio and minor signs of age. The present work is registered in the archives of Lenka Sýkorová and Zdenék Sýkora, Louny. Provenance Art Affairs, Amsterdam; private collection, Finland Exhibitions Amsterdam 1991 (Art Affairs), Zdenek Sýkora Amsterdam 1989 (Art Affairs), Zdenek Sýkora, Line-Paintings Bottrop 1986 (Quadrat Bottrop, Josef Albers Museum), Zdenek Sýkora, Retrospective, exhibition cat.no.45 (with sticker on the back) Literature Pavel Kappel, Zdenek Sýkora 90, Prague 2015, p.98 with installation view Lenka Sýkorová (ed.), Zdenek Sýkora, Interviews, Prague 2009, p.82 with color ill. Lenka Sýkorová (ed.), Zdenek Sýkora, Prints, Prague 2008, p.23 with colour illustration. Zdenek Sýkora, exhibition cat. Galerie Heinz Teufel, Amsterdam 1991, p.34/35 with color illustrations. Zdenek Sýkora, exhibition cat. House of Art of the City of Brno, Brno 1988, o.p. with color illustrations. Brno 1988 (House of Art), Zdenek Sýkora, exhibition catalogue, o.p. with ill. The present painting served as a model in modified form for the graphic: Phase No.31, 1989, color serigraph on paper, 70 x 70 cm, Edition Kunstverein Düsseldorf. Lines of extraordinary width and density dominate this large-format work by Zdenek Sýkora from the series of line pictures that Sýkora has been working on since 1973. Inextricably knotted lines of colour in orange-red, blue, green, brown and black occupy the foreground of the picture and hold the viewer's gaze. Only towards the upper and lateral areas does the mesh loosen up. The work exemplifies the striking liveliness and individuality that the artist is able to breathe into his line paintings. The broad lines of the foreground convey a sense of heaviness and inertia, their compact intertwining seeming impenetrable. Towards the outside, on the other hand, the white pictorial space seems to open up and become lighter, finer lines appearing more strongly here and radiating a lively activity. Although planned by the artist using computer technology and applied to the canvas with great technical precision, his lines unmistakably take on a life of their own - which is only made possible by the random principle that Sýkora bases his compositions on. The meshes of lines on a square background always seem to be sections of a larger whole and are reminiscent of natural phenomena. These associations are probably in the spirit of the artist, who began as a landscape painter and repeatedly addresses his relationship to nature: "In my work I always come up with something new [...]. You could also say that each painting has its beginning in the previous one, the next one in the present one. It's like in nature." (Zdenek Sýkora, quoted in: Zdenek Sýkora. System and Power of the Line, exh. Cat. Emil Schumacher Museum Hagen, Dortmund 2015, p. 20).