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拍品专文
Vojtěch Kovařík’s Aphrodite is a standout in the young Czech artist’s body of work, having already made a name for himself at the vanguard of contemporary painting. At about five feet by five feet, the larger than life canvas is a window onto a mythical world made modern, or even a mirror that reflects our desires. The goddess of sexual love and beauty, Aphrodite has made numerous appearances throughout art history, notably Sandro Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus (1486, Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence) and Peter Paul Rubens’s The Judgment of Paris (c. 1636, National Gallery, London). Kovařík’s painting has more in common with the latter, considering their shared play with frontality and legibility. Aphrodite holds its own within a foundational art historical genre, and helps us to consider beauty and desire in our contemporary moment. As ArtReview notes, “Kovařík seduces the viewer with bold lines and exuberant palette, before grabbing our attention with moments of unexpected detail…Moreover, there is a complexity here that marks this work as a cut above the faux-naive or surrealist-inflected figuration that has become fashionable of late” (O. Basciano, “The Provocations of Vojtěch Kovařík,” ArtReview, Sepember 13, 2021, https://artreview.com/the-provocations-of-vojtech-kovarik/).
Aphrodite feels like a compendium of archetypes resulting from a capacious familiarity with art and culture. When asked about his inspirations, Kovařík muses, “Movies, music, heroes, monsters and animals, Greek mythology, film noir posters, mistakes, everyday life, the perfection of the human body (especially eyes, muscles, and fingers), and certainly works of other emerging artists inspire me the most” (V. Kovařík, quoted in Format Team, “Spotlight on Vojtěch Kovařík,” Format Magazine, September 5, 2018, https://www.format.com/magazine/features/art/vojtech-kovarik). Aphrodite contains all this and more. The primary colors that compose her flesh evoke the gentle dappling of sunshine, while the greens and blues of the landscape around her lend a cool, calming energy. The figure’s body, so elegantly rendered, is both inviting and opaque, as if we are looking into a fogged mirror. Her gesture is balletic, and her gaze meets ours with confidence. She is statuesque, and yet full of life, like the self-assured women painted by Paula Modersohn-Becker. A signature Kovařík moment is the subtle frame painted at the edge of the picture, a technique often used by Georges Seurat, among others. Kovařík explains, “When I’m finishing a picture I often paint a frame at the end. This will terminate the entire composition…it’s my personal good-bye to the picture” (V. Kovařík, quoted in L. Leiman, “Beasts and Boxers: In Conversation with Vojtěch Kovařík,” Art Maze Mag, January 30, 2019, https://artmazemag.com/beasts-and-boxers-in-conversation-with-vojtech-kovarik/). Yet Aphrodite does not feel like a goodbye, but rather a hello to an inquisitive and engaged figure.
With canvases like Aphrodite, Kovařík has garnered critical acclaim. He has mounted solo shows across Europe, as well as in the United States and Brazil. He was the winner of the 12th Prize of Art Critique for Young Painting from Galerie Kritiků, Praha, Czech Republic and has completed residencies in Los Angeles, Mallorca, and London. His work has also been collected by prestigious institutions, like the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, and the Beth Rudin DeWoody Collection, Bunker Artspace, West Palm Beach, Florida.
Aphrodite is a painting of uncommon grace and intrigue amplified by sophisticated technique. Kovařík, an important voice in a generation of artists who are revisiting representation, will surely only continue to impress with his poetic, yet meticulous, paintings. He presents us with goddesses who could walk among us, who have stepped out from ancient lore into the present. Kovařík works in the tradition of the Pre-Raphaelites, who brought religious stories into modern scenes. He argues successfully for the necessity of painting in creating our own legends of the here and now.
Aphrodite feels like a compendium of archetypes resulting from a capacious familiarity with art and culture. When asked about his inspirations, Kovařík muses, “Movies, music, heroes, monsters and animals, Greek mythology, film noir posters, mistakes, everyday life, the perfection of the human body (especially eyes, muscles, and fingers), and certainly works of other emerging artists inspire me the most” (V. Kovařík, quoted in Format Team, “Spotlight on Vojtěch Kovařík,” Format Magazine, September 5, 2018, https://www.format.com/magazine/features/art/vojtech-kovarik). Aphrodite contains all this and more. The primary colors that compose her flesh evoke the gentle dappling of sunshine, while the greens and blues of the landscape around her lend a cool, calming energy. The figure’s body, so elegantly rendered, is both inviting and opaque, as if we are looking into a fogged mirror. Her gesture is balletic, and her gaze meets ours with confidence. She is statuesque, and yet full of life, like the self-assured women painted by Paula Modersohn-Becker. A signature Kovařík moment is the subtle frame painted at the edge of the picture, a technique often used by Georges Seurat, among others. Kovařík explains, “When I’m finishing a picture I often paint a frame at the end. This will terminate the entire composition…it’s my personal good-bye to the picture” (V. Kovařík, quoted in L. Leiman, “Beasts and Boxers: In Conversation with Vojtěch Kovařík,” Art Maze Mag, January 30, 2019, https://artmazemag.com/beasts-and-boxers-in-conversation-with-vojtech-kovarik/). Yet Aphrodite does not feel like a goodbye, but rather a hello to an inquisitive and engaged figure.
With canvases like Aphrodite, Kovařík has garnered critical acclaim. He has mounted solo shows across Europe, as well as in the United States and Brazil. He was the winner of the 12th Prize of Art Critique for Young Painting from Galerie Kritiků, Praha, Czech Republic and has completed residencies in Los Angeles, Mallorca, and London. His work has also been collected by prestigious institutions, like the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, and the Beth Rudin DeWoody Collection, Bunker Artspace, West Palm Beach, Florida.
Aphrodite is a painting of uncommon grace and intrigue amplified by sophisticated technique. Kovařík, an important voice in a generation of artists who are revisiting representation, will surely only continue to impress with his poetic, yet meticulous, paintings. He presents us with goddesses who could walk among us, who have stepped out from ancient lore into the present. Kovařík works in the tradition of the Pre-Raphaelites, who brought religious stories into modern scenes. He argues successfully for the necessity of painting in creating our own legends of the here and now.