Lot 14 D

The present painting has been used as a draft in a modified form for the print: Phase No.31, 1989, colour screen print on paper, 70 x 70 cm, Edition Kunstverein Dusseldorf.

Lines of an unusual width and density dominate this work by Zdenek Sýkora from the series of works of the line paintings, on which Sýkora had been working since 1973. Inextricably intertwined bands of colour in orange, blue, green, brown, and black dominate the foreground and catch the gaze of the viewer. The twisted lines begin to loosen up only in the upper and lateral areas. The work exemplifies the striking vivacity and individuality that the artist is able to breathe into his line paintings. The broad lines in the foreground convey a feeling of severity and inertia and their compact entanglements appear impenetrable. In contrast, the white pictorial space appears to open up and become lighter toward the borders; fine lines become more prominent in this area, radiating an animated activity.
Although planned by the artist using computer technology and applied to the canvas with great technical precision, his lines unmistakably lead a life of their own - and this is only made possible because Sýkora bases his compositions on the principle of chance. The mesh of lines on the square pictorial ground always appears to be only a section of a larger whole and is reminiscent of natural phenomena. These associations are probably in keeping with the spirit of the artist who began his career as a landscape painter and who repeatedly addressed his relationship to nature: “At work I always come up with something new [...]. One could also say that each painting stems from the previous one, and the next one from the present one. Just as it is in nature.” (Zdenek Sýkora, cited from: Zdenek Sýkora, System und Kraft der Linie, exhib. cat. Emil Schumacher Museum Hagen, Dortmund 2015, p. 20).