Zdeněk Sýkora Lines No. 235 2005 Acrylic on... Lot 19

Zdeněk Sýkora Lines No. 235 2005 Acrylic on canvas 170 x 170 cm. Signed and dated on the reverse of the canvas 'Sýkora 2005'. On the stretcher signed, dated and titled 'ZDENĚK SÝKORA: LINIE č. 235, 2005' as well as with material and measurements. - With studio and minor signs of age. The present work is registered in the archive Lenka Sýkorová and Zdeněk Sýkora, Louny. Provenance Art Affairs Gallery, Amsterdam; private collection, Bavaria/permanent loan Museum für Konkrete Kunst, Ingolstadt (2008-2023). Exhibitions Cologne 2006 (Art Affairs, Art Cologne), Zdeněk Sýkora, exhibition brochure with fig. of the artist's studio, the work 2nd from left. Literature Lenka Sýkorová (ed.), Zdeněk Sýkora, Interviews, Prague 2009, p.251 with color ill. of the interior of the artist's apartment, the work on the left Like probably no other representative of Concrete Art, Zdeněk Sýkora is able to breathe individuality and poetry into his paintings, which are created using an innovative computer-assisted and chance-based technique. Beginning in 2004, the artist reduced the presence of lines and their colorfulness to a minimum in a series of works. The "Lines No. 235" appear like writing or swinging exercises seen under a magnifying glass, moving gracefully across the picture surface in various stroke widths and forming loose loops. At a first cursory glance, they appear black, but a closer look reveals the use of green tones and a very dark brown. Despite its size, the work has an intimate character and unfolds a contemplative effect; involuntarily, the eye follows the gentle rise and fall of the individual line progressions. "Sýkora's lines appear [...] elegant and light at first glance, their background a spotlessly clean white surface, seemingly ready to receive the line without resistance. These lines do not show the hard but intellectual work that is rooted in their differentiated systematics. The calculated course of the lines virtually contrasts with the freedom of their effect," states Rouven Lotz (in: Zdeněk Sýkora, System und Kraft der Linie, Ausst.Kat. Emil Schumacher Museum Hagen 2015/16, p.23). "Lines No. 235" obviously possessed a special significance for the artist. The work hung in his private living room in Louny, Czech Republic (see fig.).