Lot 835 D

„My aim is to make something that's completely independent of me. The aim of all this painstaking work is to make something that's absolutely independent, free, something that inspires a feeling of freedom.” (Zdenek Sýkora, in: Hans Ulrich Obrist, The relationship between art and science, in: Gallery (ed.), Zdenek Sýkora, Interviews, Prague 2009, p.204)
This statement of Sýkoras is of special significance bearing in mind that, to a large extent, his oeuvre was produced behind the Iron Curtain and thus at least spatially in isolation from the western art scene. In the 1960s, Sykora was featured in several international exhibitions such as the ground-breaking exhibition ‚Nove Tendencije (New Tendencies)' in Zagreb in 1961. A total of 25 artists were represented, united in the search for new artistic means of expression, among them François Morellet, Enrico Castellani, Günther Uecker and Almir da Silva Mavignier. In 1967, he participated in the exhibition “Konstruktive Tendenzen aus der Tschechoslowakei (constructive tendencies from Czechoslovakia)” in Frankfurt and in 1968, Sýkora was eventually featured at documenta 4 with a whole group of his structure paintings. From 1969 until 1981 - for 12 long years - Sýkora was banned from travelling which meant that any contact with his artist friends in the West was severely limited. Thanks to his friendship with artists such as Max Bill and François Morellet as well as his contact with art dealers such as Antoinette de Stigter in Amsterdam and Heinz Teufel in Cologne/Bad Münstereifel, the artistic dialogue could be maintained nonetheless. On the one hand, his oeuvre reveals him as one of the most important artists of the Nouvelle Tendance, and on the other hand, it is particular proof that no limits may be set to the uniting force of art.