Jan Poupě / Set of Views

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

Jan Poupě / Set of Views

09.12.2015 - 21.01.2016

Fait Gallery Preview
Dominikánské nám. 10, Brno
9th December 2015 - 21th January 2016
Opening: 8th December 2015 at 6pm
Curator: Jozef Mrva

Photo: Marek Mičánek

„By drawing a diagram, a ground plan of a house, a street plan to the location of a site, or a topographic map, one draws a "logical two dimensional picture." A "logical picture" differs from a natural or realistic picture in that it rarely looks like the thing it stands for. It is a two dimensional analogy or metaphor - A is Z.“

The statement above by Robert Smithson can be included in the set of views that can interpret the work of Jan Poupě. Jan Poupě creates imaginary architectural designs, which either arise from a vacuum, float in emptiness of the monochrome background or respond to the virtual undulate surface under them. His large canvases are a play with the representativeness of this type of the logical image, but do not refer to any particular place. They are plans that deny their own utility, they are created for themselves, they are plans-for-plans. Plan becomes a medium - in its tautology it is caught up, sketched and radically completed until the very end. Poupě then constantly amends these proposals, each additional picture refers to the previous with the intention to be better. But the result is not a linear development towards the best possible outcome, the apocalyptic ideal. His creative process is not the work of an engineer working with the assignment, but of an artist, who disassembles it. He creates a set of views. With every next picture this set expands and contains more and more different approaches, mutations and views.

The actual set of views can be understood in two ways: First, as every conceivable position of the viewer whilst looking at the picture, when passing his insidiously constructed paintings, therefore, the physical act of observation connected with the movement of our bodies in the space in order to get the ideal field of view. This viewer’s point of view Poupě likes to use in paintings that have perspective moving outside their own area, which is uneasy for the viewer and forces him to subconsciously follow a point that has vanished. Or the set of views can be a metaphorical move of the mind across the picture, sliding on its surface and beneath it, looking for interpretive keys and presumption about the hidden parts. It is a movement of imagination, the inner desire to convert Poupě’s pictures into Google Street View and see all the corners from the level of an imaginary pedestrian. Both of these sets can continue indefinitely and they become parallel to each other and in their connections and combinations there is born an adventure for the audience that is a worthwhile experience.

Jozef Mrva, curator

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