Lot 565 D

“School of Life. Class: Adult. Subject: Egypt” was the name Paul Thek gave his sketchbook which emerged during a trip with a friend through Egypt. The “School of Life” was of eminent importance to the artist. Widely travelled, with a thirst for knowledge and open to all aspects of human existence, Paul Thek was an unusually versatile artist whose work unites the seemingly greatest possible opposites of life.
“In his work and life, he melded the spiritual with the philosophical, integrating a healthy dose of popular culture and humor. He ranged widely in pursuit of meaning, blending modes that were conventional (study, meditative writing, oil on canvas) and unconventional (free love, psychedelics, wax-made chunks of flesh). The mix of seeming opposites marks Thek's achievement as an artist. […] He celebrated (often in a single work) religion and sexuality, beauty and pain, comedy and high seriousness, in a manner, that he clearly believed reflected truths about the human experience.” (Lynn Zelevansky, in: Paul Thek. Diver, exhib.cat. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York 2011, p.10f.)
Notebooks and sketchbooks formed an important fundament for the artist throughout his life - not only relevant for his artistic work, but also as a diary in which he tried to clarify questions personal to him and recorded in writing or drawing whatever moved him.
His varied interests are clearly seen in this Egyptian sketchbook. More general drawings of boats and embankments on the Nile alternate with detailed studies of local men; Thek captured his companion reading or sunbathing just as figuratively as himself from his own perspective when drawing in the car or plane. Everyday objects which caught his eye are depicted in extreme close-up whilst fleeting figural silhouettes pass quickly by. A few rudimentary translation exercises from Arabic or the frottage of hieroglyphics demonstrate his curiosity for the foreign language and culture.