2024-07-06 16:26:51
After several years of experimental procedures, artist Petr Nikl returned to traditional brush painting. He is exhibiting an impressive series of paintings, the main motif of which are beggars with dogs, in the halls of the farm buildings of the East Bohemian Museum in Pardubice. The show will last until September 8, it was prepared by curator Radek Wohlmuth.
Petr Nikl saw begging people with dogs during the coronavirus pandemic on Charles Bridge in Prague. In his paintings, they kneel with their faces turned to the ground, their identities remaining hidden. Dogs, on the other hand, do not hide and become the imaginary substitute face of people in the pictures. The paintings do not depict anything else in the surroundings, the figures seem to be torn out of time and space.
“I like to transplant the object from the background. There is an empty area on the background. I can concentrate on the dialogue between the man and the dogs. This is how I work for a long time. I do not use the entire surface of the painting,” explains the artist.
According to the organizers, he works with a situation where the beggar’s face is hidden, but his animal companion adds the effect of so-called “dog’s eyes”, arousing emotions and thus compassion. One face thus pragmatically mistakes itself for another within the framework of a manipulative psychological game with passers-by.
The second part of the exhibition consists of paintings in which the sixty-three-year-old native of Zlín depicted his adult children, a son and a daughter. They lie down and sleep, or stare into space. “On various trips, I took pictures of them sleeping. They didn’t know about it. Their eyes are closed or they are dreamy and they don’t perceive their surroundings. I can’t say that they read it when I exposed them,” notes the artist.
The realistic paintings were created thanks to the fact that Nikl had already created portraits of Renaissance noblemen and noblewomen for Pardubice, which will be part of the Pernštejn family exhibition from 2022.
Petr Nikl at an exhibition of his works in Pardubice. | Photo: CTK
Some have preserved their image in the paintings, some have not. In that case, the painter had to guess the face type and appearance. “When I finished painting Pernštejny, I felt like continuing with realism. The new exhibition is a product, an inspiration, of what I did for the Pardubice castle,” concludes Petr Nikl.
Even after his 60s, the artist remains playful and spontaneous in all his activities, from the creative sphere to writing books to theatrical performances and music. In addition, he likes to connect all these disciplines. He can think in the dimensions of a book and a large-scale traveling exhibition.
“I like to be amazed, that’s probably the most important trigger mechanism for me. When I was taken to the emergency room with a broken arm, it was late in the evening and I see that the moon is somehow strange, that it can’t be the full moon that is leaving, but it will probably be eclipse. That was beautiful. You could easily write something about it,” he mused years ago in Radio Wave.
His work is interwoven with an interest in society and a search for the meaning of contemporary art. He drew more attention to himself for the first time as a member of the art group Tvrdohlaví. At first, he focused more on painting, graphics and drawing. Subtle colors are typical for his paintings.
Until 1990 he created stylized animal motifs, in the early 1990s he turned to figurative painting, which was gradually more realistic and technically sophisticated. Around 1995 he painted portraits, a year later real-life figures. From this time he also devoted himself to stylized photography on various subjects.
His mother was Libuše Niklová, a star of Czech and world design known for her charming inflatable toys and accordion cat.
In 2010, Petr Nikl prepared an exhibition for her in the Prague Museum of Applied Arts. And when, two years later, he received the in memoriam award for her on the occasion of her induction into the hall of fame of the Academy of Czech Design, he thanked her and also “the air that is all around us, and when it is wrapped well, beautiful things are created”.
Nikl’s author’s books of fairy tales were also successful – The Tale of the Little Fish, The Fish and the Sea Soul, The Deer. The author has received the Most Beautiful Book of the Year award several times, his title Mysteries received the Magnesia Litera in 2008. In addition, Petr Nikl is the recipient of the Jindřich Chalupecký Prize.
His works can be found, for example, in the collections of the National Gallery in Prague. He also directs the theater and conducts the orchestra, prepares exhibitions and takes photographs. He exhibits alone and together with other artists. His artistic and theatrical performances were also seen by the audience in Germany, Finland, the USA and France. In 2005, Petr Nikl also created the Garden of Fantasy and Music for the Czech pavilion at the Japanese Expo.
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