Erika Bornová
Self-Portrait IV.
Artist
Erika Bornová
(1964, Praha), Czech
Original Title
Autoportrét IV.
Date2018
Mediumacrylic on paper
Dimensions100 × 70 cm
Classifications
works on paper
Credit LineKunsthalle Praha
DescriptionErika Bornová is one of the foremost Czech figures of the generation of artists associated with the 1980s. Her early work were tied to the neoexpressionist and, subsequently, the mythology-inspired currents of postmodern painting. Blending elements of slapstick, existentialism, and humor, she reacted to the ridiculousness and absurdity of late totalitarianism. Later, she began combining painting with collage and assemblage, before beginning to work almost exclusively with sculpture during the late 1980s and early 1990s. Bornová cuts her sculptures out of polystyrene. During the second half of the 1990s, she began partially coloring them, thus imbuing them with a distinctive, ironic accent. The true materiality of the sculptures is always clearly visible and intentionally exposed to the viewer. Bornová chose this banal and ephemeral material, with a direct connection to the emergent consumer society, for its affordability as well as its relatively easy malleability and its pop art aesthetic, which resonated with the context of the time. The fact that she uses kitchen knife to shape the polystyrene introduces a link with the woman’s world and domestic labor, which is traditionally considered the responsibility of women. In recent years, Bornová has also returned to painting. Throughout her oeuvre, she focuses on interpersonal relations, women’s identity, the fetishization of the female body, and the solitude of the individual in modern society. She oscillates between seriousness and hyperbole, drawing on autobiographical elements and general conventions of interpersonal relations. One of her important painting cycles is the series Laces (1993), where she created assemblages depicting kitchenware to comment on the contemporary social context and the requirements placed on women, who are forced to deal with the pressure of commercials portraying feminine beauty and infinite youth, as well as pressures related to their own career and self-fulfillment, which are at odds with the idea of the woman as a housewife dedicated to looking after the family. The sculptural cycle I Will Do Anything (2008) portrayed anonymous women in sexually provocative poses and incorporated elements evocative of sex work. Through these works, Bornová addressed the sexualization of feminine sexuality and the female body, which is heavily exploited in the context of contemporary consumer society. The majority of her work from 2000 onward explores topics of human alienation and the search for personal identity.
Bornová created the acrylic paintings which form the extensive series Autoportraits (2018) during her long recovery from an eye injury sustained while carving her polystyrene sculptures, which saw her temporarily lose her sight. When she first began working on the cycle, she could barely see. The paintings are the result of obsessive daily work during which she aimed to visualize her own face solely based on memory. These unsettling, psychedelically colored portraits betray a focus on the challenging psychological experiences of pain and a fear of losing the sense of sight, so essential for an artist. Works from this series featured in the exhibition Madness is the Guardian of the Night, (Prague City Gallery, 2021), with Bornová borrowing the title from a verse by Rainer Maria Rilke.
Erika Bornová (born 1964, Prague) studied at the Secondary Vocational School of Art in Prague (1979–1983) and subsequently in the painting studio of the Academy of the Fine Arts in Prague (1983–1988). She exhibited at the legendary unofficial exhibitions Konfrontace (Confrontations) in Prague and Kladno (1984–1987). Her work has been featured in group exhibitions juxtaposing Czech and international art, such as Insideout: Prague-Berlin-New York (Bunker Berlin, 2002) as well as in exhibitions presenting important Czech women artists, for instance Behind the Velvet Curtain: Seven Woman Artists from the Czech Republic (American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center, Washington D. C., 2009). Bornová’s work was also included in the group exhibition Formats of Transformation 89-09 (House of Arts in Brno, 1989; MUSA Museum auf Abruf, Vienna, 2009), where she explored the topic of new Czech and Slovak national identities. Her most recent solo exhibitions took place at the Václav Špála Gallery in Prague (Obsession, 2016) and at the Prague City Gallery (Madness is the Guardian of the Night, 2021). Her work is also held in the collections of institutions such as the National Gallery Prague, the Aleš South Bohemian Gallery in Hluboká nad Vltavou, the Richard Adam Gallery, the Klatovy-Klenová Gallery, and the Museum of Design in Benešov.
Bornová created the acrylic paintings which form the extensive series Autoportraits (2018) during her long recovery from an eye injury sustained while carving her polystyrene sculptures, which saw her temporarily lose her sight. When she first began working on the cycle, she could barely see. The paintings are the result of obsessive daily work during which she aimed to visualize her own face solely based on memory. These unsettling, psychedelically colored portraits betray a focus on the challenging psychological experiences of pain and a fear of losing the sense of sight, so essential for an artist. Works from this series featured in the exhibition Madness is the Guardian of the Night, (Prague City Gallery, 2021), with Bornová borrowing the title from a verse by Rainer Maria Rilke.
Erika Bornová (born 1964, Prague) studied at the Secondary Vocational School of Art in Prague (1979–1983) and subsequently in the painting studio of the Academy of the Fine Arts in Prague (1983–1988). She exhibited at the legendary unofficial exhibitions Konfrontace (Confrontations) in Prague and Kladno (1984–1987). Her work has been featured in group exhibitions juxtaposing Czech and international art, such as Insideout: Prague-Berlin-New York (Bunker Berlin, 2002) as well as in exhibitions presenting important Czech women artists, for instance Behind the Velvet Curtain: Seven Woman Artists from the Czech Republic (American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center, Washington D. C., 2009). Bornová’s work was also included in the group exhibition Formats of Transformation 89-09 (House of Arts in Brno, 1989; MUSA Museum auf Abruf, Vienna, 2009), where she explored the topic of new Czech and Slovak national identities. Her most recent solo exhibitions took place at the Václav Špála Gallery in Prague (Obsession, 2016) and at the Prague City Gallery (Madness is the Guardian of the Night, 2021). Her work is also held in the collections of institutions such as the National Gallery Prague, the Aleš South Bohemian Gallery in Hluboká nad Vltavou, the Richard Adam Gallery, the Klatovy-Klenová Gallery, and the Museum of Design in Benešov.
