Zdeněk Sýkora: Lines No. 39 14. 7. 2023 – 10. 9. 2023
By exhibiting this painting, together with the Benedikt Rejt Gallery in Louny and GASK – the Gallery of the Central Bohemian Region in Kutná Hora, we commemorate 50 years since the first line painting, which Zdeněk Sýkora completed in July 1973. At that time he decided to replace the principle of structure, in which everything is defined by clear rules, with the principle of randomness. The lines run on white background according to the coordinates, whose values have been randomly determined by a roll of the dice or by the computer.
Zdeněk Sýkora says of the lines: “They have a purely vegetative character, as if my painting had returned to nature… I can’t extricate myself from them. It is as if I fell into the jungle among the lianas, and it seems to me that I will never get out of them. I feel that they still provide very many opportunities to be explored. In the structures, randomness was eliminated, whereas in the lines, the principle of randomness is fundamental.” (from an interview with Petr Volf for the Reflex magazine, Vol. 9, No. 36, 1998)