LENKA VÍTKOVÁ / THE BODY´S ANSWERS TO THE QUESTIONS OF FLOWERS

The first of two overview exhibitions assesses the collecting activities of the Fait Gallery, initiated by Igor Fait and systematically developed since 2012 in synergy with the chief curator Denisa Kujelová, who worked in the gallery until mid-2025.

Given the extensive nature of the collection which comprises over 1,000 items, and considering the multiple artistic approaches and the time span covered by the collection, which ranges from the pre-war avant-garde to contemporary art, it appeared natural to organise two consecutive shows.

In order to maintain a certain homogeneity in the exhibition, it was necessary to find a simple and universal key for selecting the artists and individual works. In most cases, this took the form of an abstract geometric-constructivist tendency which, with a few exceptions, involved pure minimalism, while in other cases it was softer abstraction with connotations of a reality-inspired starting point.

Part of the exhibition is devoted to the presentation of pre-war modernism, making up the core of the collection from the very beginning. It is the cubist tendency, evident in the works of Emil Filla and the more frequently represented Antonín Procházka, that forms a link with the mentioned geometric-abstract tendency which in many cases takes on a mathematical character in the works of artists active in the second half of the 20th century.

In connection with cubism, it is also necessary to mention that the exhibition includes several works related more to contemporary art which can be described as explicitly figurative, mediating a kind of neo-cubism and thus making an exception from the rule within the exhibition concept.

A confrontational aspect is supplied by the younger generation of artists fluidly incorporated into the exhibition. They function as a subtle refreshing and at the same time convey the message that the recycling of basic forms defined in the first half of the 20th century is still relevant, even though the artists' starting points are now quite different.

From the media perspective, the exhibition provides an overview of the segment of the collection that exclusively addresses traditional art forms such as painting, drawing, graphic art, objects, sculpture, assemblage, and various types of collage.

The overall aim of the exhibition is to present the part of the collection relating to the mentioned trends, to define and demonstrate formal and content-unifying elements among artists across the given time scope, and to set them in a mutual context.

Ondřej Kotrč

LENKA VÍTKOVÁ / THE BODY´S ANSWERS TO THE QUESTIONS OF FLOWERS

22.11.2014 - 15.01.2015

Fait Gallery MEM
Božetěchova Street 1 (entrance from Metodějova Street), Brno
22/11/2014 – 15/1/2015
Opening: 20/11/2014 at 7pm
Curator: Jan Zálešák

The Body’s answers to the questions of Flowers is a paraphrase of the verse "The body's answers to the questions of landscape" that is the start of one of the poems included in the collection of Short summer processes by Petr Kabeš. The exhibition's title reminds us of the existence of continuous ongoing dialogue happening on a preconscious or "out of conscious" level: before we are able to realise, or even critically reflect, we have always already, somehow related to the world, and it is through the "interface" of our body that we do this. Painting arises precisely at this interface, which is also one of the reasons, why it does not lose anything in the recency and the intensity with which it can speak to us, although it has been repeatedly neglected in recent decades.

In the MEM gallery Lenka Vítková presents works from the a recent period (the first paintings were started in late summer, some are only a few weeks old). In the exhibiton the paintings of flowers take turns with figural paintings which repeat the same female figure theme, bent at the waist so that the hands are touching the ground. The center of gravity of the bent body moves down and forward, closer to the ground. Unlikely to be a dancing figure, a special exercise? Head facing down and pelvis pushed forward: the body is shown free of any symbolism, additionally it stands on "all four". However the animality of this position is not in any way degrading. Moreover Lenka Vítková adds to the figures a certain grandeur by the method of applying colour (she emphasises the vertical brush strokes more strongly than detailed modeling). The silhouettes of bent bodies do not carry any story, they speak to us by "the body language" - the same language they answer to the flowers, which the author paints with the same austerity, but with an even stronger passion for colour. The colour palette seems too intense at first glance - all the shades of green, blue and purple, placed in solid lumps, side by side may start to look like a colour card. But, in the end, isn’t each flower with large petals the same fascinating color card of tones and valeurs?

Flowers and bodies without faces. They are objects to be viewed, but they do not look back at us. It is different with a pair of heads. They disturb the continuity of the dialogue that lead paintings on the walls between them. They turn directly at us and therefore give the dialogue a different direction. Maybe it's the dark shadows hiding the eyes that tears apart the conventional scheme of painting exhibitions, in which the audience view reflects from the surface of the wall with hanging paintings. The view of the hidden eyes goes out of the surface, towards me and enables me to realise that my own body is a living thing within the space.

The paintings are born in moments of privacy, in which the mind almost splits up and it‘s particles remain together with pigments firmly fixed to the surface of the painting. They are the result of a quiet conversation and speak to us as well – they let us see, through their surface, something that would otherwise remain hidden inside the human body as in a locked box.

Jan Zálešák

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