Vladimír Houdek
Measuring Space
Artist
Vladimír Houdek
(1984, Nové Město na Moravě), Czech
Original Title
Measuring Space
Date2010
Mediumoil on canvas
Dimensions 190 × 510 cm
Classificationspaintings
Credit LineKunsthalle Praha (Eva and Petr Zeman Collection)
DescriptionVladimír Houdek is a Czech artist who primarily focuses on experiments with classical painting and collage. He produces his work in series, spanning both abstraction and figuration. Distinctive features of his work are a significantly reduced color palette and a meticulous use of lighting, which he uses to portray shape and depth as well as to aestheticize the portrayed forms. The content of Houdek’s paintings is dominated by geometric shapes referencing several modernist art styles, which can be interpreted as a conscious form of communication with the concepts of modern and postmodern art. They are not, however, merely quotations—alongside these universal forms, the works also incorporate ordinary, mundane objects. The result is a creative recontextualization of the sources of inspiration and their synthesis into a new whole. Through a repetition of forms suspended in the space of his artworks, Houdek constructs a new parallel reality in which the particular is replaced by the abstract. The human figure, which was part of his earlier work, occasionally reappears in the form of collagist fragments, demonstrating Houdek’s in the future of the world we inhabit; this preoccupation is also evidenced by his recent interest in projects of utopian cities. The world conceived in his works is articulated through their painterly precision and accentuation of matter and its dematerialization, which imbue the paintings with a striking materiality and make them resemble memory storage devices of sorts. They often comprise as many as twenty layers of oil paint, as demonstrated by the amount of paint observable at the margins of the canvas. The artworks skillfully combine painterly intuition, on the one hand, and rational conceptualization on the other.
Measuring Space (2010) is part of a homonymous series which portrays a figure engaging with the ideas and interpretations of different historical artistic movements, while also measuring space using its own body. The male figure present in each of the three spaces is inspired by German artist and photographer Richard Agner, who attempted to depict objects in freefall and to thus explore the physical laws of the human world.
Vladimír Houdek (*1984, Nové Město na Moravě) lives and works in Prague. He studied in Vladimír Skrepl’s painting studio at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague. During this time, he also attended placements in the studios of guest professors Jan Mert and Silke Otto-Knapp. In 2010, he was awarded the Critics’ Prize for Young Painting, and two years later won the Jindřich Chalupecký Prize. He also translates his paintings into short films, made in collaboration with choreographer Hanka Turečková, in which he combines art with movement to create new realities. His work is included in the collections of institutions such as the National Gallery Prague, the Art Collection Telekom, the Kunstpalais Erlangen and several prominent private collections. He has had solo exhibitions at institutions including the Kunstverein Lübeck, the Kunstpalais Erlangen, and the Mönchehaus Museum in Goslar.
Measuring Space (2010) is part of a homonymous series which portrays a figure engaging with the ideas and interpretations of different historical artistic movements, while also measuring space using its own body. The male figure present in each of the three spaces is inspired by German artist and photographer Richard Agner, who attempted to depict objects in freefall and to thus explore the physical laws of the human world.
Vladimír Houdek (*1984, Nové Město na Moravě) lives and works in Prague. He studied in Vladimír Skrepl’s painting studio at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague. During this time, he also attended placements in the studios of guest professors Jan Mert and Silke Otto-Knapp. In 2010, he was awarded the Critics’ Prize for Young Painting, and two years later won the Jindřich Chalupecký Prize. He also translates his paintings into short films, made in collaboration with choreographer Hanka Turečková, in which he combines art with movement to create new realities. His work is included in the collections of institutions such as the National Gallery Prague, the Art Collection Telekom, the Kunstpalais Erlangen and several prominent private collections. He has had solo exhibitions at institutions including the Kunstverein Lübeck, the Kunstpalais Erlangen, and the Mönchehaus Museum in Goslar.
Adam Štech
