Petr Nikl
Hands and Feet
Artist
Petr Nikl
(1960, Zlín), Czech
Original Title
Hands and Feet
Date1991
Mediumoil and plush on canvas
Dimensions162 × 146 cm
Classificationspaintings
Credit LineKunsthalle Praha
DescriptionPeter Nikl is a visual artist working with a wide array of mediums such as painting, music, performance, staged photography, theatre, puppet theatre, and book writing, using them to weave together a distinctive poetic world. He often draws inspiration from his own childhood and more generally from childish intuitiveness unaffected by rationality and mundaneness. In his work, Nikl continuously explores the phenomena of time and memory while also holding an interest in the prenatal and early phases of human and animal life. His playful, associative approach fosters an interaction with viewers, aiming to awaken their sensitivity and allow them to view our existence and the surrounding world from a different perspective. His canvases are marked by delicate artistic work, reflecting his interest in classicism and the Renaissance masters.
Arms and Legs (1991) represents the early work of painter Petr Nikl, aptly illustrating his characteristically gentle and simultaneously detailed painterly style. The strangely classical aesthetic of these body parts and their subtle color tones, blending in with the glimmering background, illustrate Nikl’s delicate style of painting. The assemblage-style incorporation of a plush toy imbues the piece with a playful dimension while also emphasizing the haptic qualities of the canvas. The stylized and unfinished body parts also demonstrate the ways in which the generation of artists around the art group Tvrdohlaví (The Headstrongs) employed a postmodern artistic vocabulary in reaction to the contemporary crisis of figurative painting. The extraordinary finesse of this piece also illustrates an affiliation with contemporary works displayed at the New Intimacies exhibition (ÚLUV, Prague, 1991).
Petr Nikl (*1960, Zlín) studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague from 1981-1987. During his studies he took part in underground student exhibitions titled Konfrontace organized from 1884 onward. He was part of the art group Tvrdohlaví (The Headstrongs; 1987-1991), whose members followed postmodernist tendencies. He is a laureate of the Jindřich Chalupecký Prize for the year 1995. He also received scholarships from the Ecole Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Marseille in France (2004) and the Headlands Center for the Arts in the USA (1996). His work has been featured in numerous group exhibitions in France, Germany, Belgium, Denmark, Spain, and Great Britain. He has also had solo exhibitions at Gallery 36 in Ukrainie, Gallery Sechzig in Austria, Gallery La Coupole and the Neue Rathaus in Germany, and the Mustaari Gallery in Finland. In 2013, a retrospective exhibition of his work was held at the Prague City Gallery. Nikl also occasionally designs and curates exhibitions which extensively incorporate the viewer, for instance: The Nests of Games, Galerie Rudolfinum, Prague, 2000; The Landscape of Fantasy and Music at the Czech Pavilion at Expo 2000 in Aichi, Japan; the travelling project Orbis Pictus and the Labyrinth of the World; the travelling project Play, etc.
Arms and Legs (1991) represents the early work of painter Petr Nikl, aptly illustrating his characteristically gentle and simultaneously detailed painterly style. The strangely classical aesthetic of these body parts and their subtle color tones, blending in with the glimmering background, illustrate Nikl’s delicate style of painting. The assemblage-style incorporation of a plush toy imbues the piece with a playful dimension while also emphasizing the haptic qualities of the canvas. The stylized and unfinished body parts also demonstrate the ways in which the generation of artists around the art group Tvrdohlaví (The Headstrongs) employed a postmodern artistic vocabulary in reaction to the contemporary crisis of figurative painting. The extraordinary finesse of this piece also illustrates an affiliation with contemporary works displayed at the New Intimacies exhibition (ÚLUV, Prague, 1991).
Petr Nikl (*1960, Zlín) studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague from 1981-1987. During his studies he took part in underground student exhibitions titled Konfrontace organized from 1884 onward. He was part of the art group Tvrdohlaví (The Headstrongs; 1987-1991), whose members followed postmodernist tendencies. He is a laureate of the Jindřich Chalupecký Prize for the year 1995. He also received scholarships from the Ecole Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Marseille in France (2004) and the Headlands Center for the Arts in the USA (1996). His work has been featured in numerous group exhibitions in France, Germany, Belgium, Denmark, Spain, and Great Britain. He has also had solo exhibitions at Gallery 36 in Ukrainie, Gallery Sechzig in Austria, Gallery La Coupole and the Neue Rathaus in Germany, and the Mustaari Gallery in Finland. In 2013, a retrospective exhibition of his work was held at the Prague City Gallery. Nikl also occasionally designs and curates exhibitions which extensively incorporate the viewer, for instance: The Nests of Games, Galerie Rudolfinum, Prague, 2000; The Landscape of Fantasy and Music at the Czech Pavilion at Expo 2000 in Aichi, Japan; the travelling project Orbis Pictus and the Labyrinth of the World; the travelling project Play, etc.
