Mikuláš Medek
Red Venus
Artist
Mikuláš Medek
(1926, Praha - 1974, Praha), Czech
Original Title
Red Venus
Date1959
Mediumoil, enamel and canvas pasted onto plywood
Dimensions93 × 72 cm
Classificationspaintings
Credit LineKunsthalle Praha
DescriptionMikuláš Medek is considered as one of the most important artists of Czech post-war art. His work is primarily linked to Czech art informel, which differs from Western post-war abstraction in its strong inclination toward existentialism, thematizing reflections on human fate and its tragedy and grotesqueness. Medek managed to retain his independence and freedom of thought in face of the communist regime with its general hostility toward modern art. He became a respected name in the underground art scene, his informalist work influencing numerous artists of the younger generation. His strongly existentialist works were distinguished by their originality and emphasis on the process of projecting inner psychological tensions onto the canvas. After 1963, the motifs of his work gained a more symbolic, significatory nature, evidencing a return to figurative painting.
This painting titled Red Venus (1959) dates from the beginning of Medek’s non-figurative phase, lasting from 1959 to 1963. During this short yet intense creative period, Medek developed a form of structured, informalist painting which he himself termed “taxidermy painting”. Although these works marked a fundamental split from his previous figurative work, they still bear signs of their grounding in abstracted geometric figuration which seeks to visualize pain. Created at the outset of this phase, Red Venus was conceived as a counterpart to the previously painted Blue Venus. Both canvases were included in an overview of his recent works in the fourth issue of the anthological publication Objekt (1960) edited by Vratislav Effenberger. Both works also demonstrate Medek’s characteristic polarization of red and blue, thematizing symbolic and psychophysical opposites. Red Venus is the result of a maximally abstracted human torso stretched across space, ultimately resembling a seamless abstract plane. The work also contains traces of numerous aggressive interventions in the pictorial surface, creating various penetrations, scratches, cuts, folds, shapeless clumps, and gaping holes in the torso. Thus, Medek was able to achieve similar vicious attacks as in his figurative work, where they were directly visualized as damage and threats to the human body.
Mikuláš Medek (1926, Prague – 1974, Prague) was part of the Czech art circles since his childhood owing to his family’s social ties. Medek’s grandfather was the famous painter Antonín Slavíček and his wife was photographer Emila Medková. He studied in Karel Müller’s studio at the National Graphics School in Prague. In 1945, he began studying at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague. At the end of World War II, Medek joined a revolutionary student group and during the last days of the war he took part in the Prague Uprising. After the war, he became a member of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, only to leave it following the 1948 coup. His early work was inspired by biology, which he developed an interest in during his studies. He was also heavily influenced by surrealism, which retained a strong presence in the Czech art scene despite wartime restrictions and the totalitarian cultural politics instilled following February 1948, which promoted dogmatic adherence to the artistic principles of socialist realism. From the beginning of the 1950s, his work began to emphasize an existential weight linked to the post-war climate as well as Medek’s personal experience of life under the communist regime. This focus was reflected in figurative motifs depicting various forms of bodily harm, which can be interpreted as a projection of inner emptiness and of the brutality and absurdity of the time. In the late 1950s, Medek’s practice fluently developed toward a more abstract style where thick layers of oil and enamel paint form an organic, malleable matter which he subsequently perforates and otherwise damages as part of his psychophysical process. Due to the incompatibility of his work with the state’s cultural doctrine of socialist realism, Medek was forced to work in illegality, outside the official body of the Union of Czechoslovak Artists, which meant he was unable to exhibit his work publicly. During the early 1960s, he played an influential role in shaping the upcoming generation of artists who presented their work at the legendary underground exhibitions known as Konfrontace (Konfrontace I, Konfrontace II), which were organized covertly in artists’ studios. The Western art scene discovered Medek’s work through a 1960 article by Ludmila Vachtová, published at the occasion of the Venice Biennale. During the 1960s, the loosening of political and cultural conditions and the decrease in ideological surveillance allowed him to publicly exhibit his work, helping him become a renowned and acclaimed artist. In 1965, he was permitted to hold his first solo exhibition at the Nová Síň Gallery in Prague. In 1969, he received a state award for his series Designers of Towers. During this time, he worked on several monumental interior design projects, most notably for the Czechoslovak Airlines and the Catholic church. His work was also displayed at several international exhibitions of Czechoslovak art and was acquired by numerous state galleries. The normalization politics of the 1970s led to a renewal of his exhibition ban. Medek died of a long-term illness in August 1974 in Prague. Today, his works are held in most large public collections in the Czech Republic, as well as in international institutions such as the Museum Boymans van Beuningen in Rotterdam, the Museum of Modern Art in Sydney, and the Städtische Kunstgalerie in Bochum. In 2002, a symposium held in Prague raised questions regarding the actual contributions of Medek’s legacy in contrast to his continuous uncritical mythification.
This painting titled Red Venus (1959) dates from the beginning of Medek’s non-figurative phase, lasting from 1959 to 1963. During this short yet intense creative period, Medek developed a form of structured, informalist painting which he himself termed “taxidermy painting”. Although these works marked a fundamental split from his previous figurative work, they still bear signs of their grounding in abstracted geometric figuration which seeks to visualize pain. Created at the outset of this phase, Red Venus was conceived as a counterpart to the previously painted Blue Venus. Both canvases were included in an overview of his recent works in the fourth issue of the anthological publication Objekt (1960) edited by Vratislav Effenberger. Both works also demonstrate Medek’s characteristic polarization of red and blue, thematizing symbolic and psychophysical opposites. Red Venus is the result of a maximally abstracted human torso stretched across space, ultimately resembling a seamless abstract plane. The work also contains traces of numerous aggressive interventions in the pictorial surface, creating various penetrations, scratches, cuts, folds, shapeless clumps, and gaping holes in the torso. Thus, Medek was able to achieve similar vicious attacks as in his figurative work, where they were directly visualized as damage and threats to the human body.
Mikuláš Medek (1926, Prague – 1974, Prague) was part of the Czech art circles since his childhood owing to his family’s social ties. Medek’s grandfather was the famous painter Antonín Slavíček and his wife was photographer Emila Medková. He studied in Karel Müller’s studio at the National Graphics School in Prague. In 1945, he began studying at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague. At the end of World War II, Medek joined a revolutionary student group and during the last days of the war he took part in the Prague Uprising. After the war, he became a member of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, only to leave it following the 1948 coup. His early work was inspired by biology, which he developed an interest in during his studies. He was also heavily influenced by surrealism, which retained a strong presence in the Czech art scene despite wartime restrictions and the totalitarian cultural politics instilled following February 1948, which promoted dogmatic adherence to the artistic principles of socialist realism. From the beginning of the 1950s, his work began to emphasize an existential weight linked to the post-war climate as well as Medek’s personal experience of life under the communist regime. This focus was reflected in figurative motifs depicting various forms of bodily harm, which can be interpreted as a projection of inner emptiness and of the brutality and absurdity of the time. In the late 1950s, Medek’s practice fluently developed toward a more abstract style where thick layers of oil and enamel paint form an organic, malleable matter which he subsequently perforates and otherwise damages as part of his psychophysical process. Due to the incompatibility of his work with the state’s cultural doctrine of socialist realism, Medek was forced to work in illegality, outside the official body of the Union of Czechoslovak Artists, which meant he was unable to exhibit his work publicly. During the early 1960s, he played an influential role in shaping the upcoming generation of artists who presented their work at the legendary underground exhibitions known as Konfrontace (Konfrontace I, Konfrontace II), which were organized covertly in artists’ studios. The Western art scene discovered Medek’s work through a 1960 article by Ludmila Vachtová, published at the occasion of the Venice Biennale. During the 1960s, the loosening of political and cultural conditions and the decrease in ideological surveillance allowed him to publicly exhibit his work, helping him become a renowned and acclaimed artist. In 1965, he was permitted to hold his first solo exhibition at the Nová Síň Gallery in Prague. In 1969, he received a state award for his series Designers of Towers. During this time, he worked on several monumental interior design projects, most notably for the Czechoslovak Airlines and the Catholic church. His work was also displayed at several international exhibitions of Czechoslovak art and was acquired by numerous state galleries. The normalization politics of the 1970s led to a renewal of his exhibition ban. Medek died of a long-term illness in August 1974 in Prague. Today, his works are held in most large public collections in the Czech Republic, as well as in international institutions such as the Museum Boymans van Beuningen in Rotterdam, the Museum of Modern Art in Sydney, and the Städtische Kunstgalerie in Bochum. In 2002, a symposium held in Prague raised questions regarding the actual contributions of Medek’s legacy in contrast to his continuous uncritical mythification.
