watercolour, handmade paper, 42 × 29,7 cm, signed bottom on the back in pencil by Kokolia
"The beginning of the nineties meant for Vladimír Kokolia an extraordinary
creative and breakthrough period. While in the eighties he was devoted to
mainly graphic art, with grotesque motifs of bent and twisted human figures, in painting he gradually moved towards abstracted sign, based on the record of seen reality - things, people, situations or landscapes. After becoming the first laureate of the newly Jindřich Chalupecký Prize, he traveled as part of the for several months in the USA. Here, under the influence of observations of the surface of the
of the ocean, he came up with the idea of non-linear imaging. The mass of sea waves became an example for perceiving the world not in the individual existing
side by side and behind each other, but as a whole in which everything happens at once, simultaneously. The world, human beings, and nature come together in a mutually an interconnected organism that has no precise boundaries, that begins nowhere and does not end. The paintings often take the form of a three-dimensional network or structure, that breaks into space, dives deep beneath the surface, and again back again. Kokolia focuses on the question of the position of the observer.
The structures form optically spatial compositions in which one cannot learn
the habitat and the point of view. Kokolia captures the ingeniously intertwined lines in a distinctive way; working with a dry brush in which
the paint is omitted in places and the surface is emptier than the depth radiating from the colors. The surface of the uninscribed canvas also has a role in the painting, forming the basic structure from which the painting emerges. The way the lines and paths are guided is related to the practice of Tai Chi, which Kokolia has been practicing since the 1990s. The physical flowing movement, breath and meditation of the Eastern teachings and practice is manifested in the way of painting, the grip of the brush, the drawing of the line, the movement of the hand and body, and the artistic mind. Vladimir Kokolia (b. 1956) graduated in 1981 from the painting studio of Professor Jan Smetana at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague. In the 1980s he was member of the legendary alternative music group E. In 1990 he became the first laureate of the Jindřich Chalupecký Prize. Since 1992 he has been leading at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, the Graphics II studio, in 2006. He was appointed professor in 2006. His work is represented in major
Czech and international institutional and private collections. Early work from the 1990s appears on the market only rarely.
