Lot 225

Patrik Hábl (1975) INFANTA (DIEGO VELÁZQUEZ)

Patrik Hábl is one of the most prominent faces of contemporary Czech paintings working with the image and its spatial placement. In exhibitions and interventions in public space, he has long been perceived as a representative of abstract painting and imaginative landscapes. The featured painting of Maria Anna of Spain after Diego Velázquez is part of a larger cycle of works, reinterpretations of world master paintings, which he has been continuously working on from the time of his studies to the present, i.e. for over 28 years. The artist himself says of the work, "the painting is painted in the same size as the original and then deconstructed in a painterly manner. I enter the painting in various ways, such as ripping out, washing out, or layering the painting further. The face becomes the motif of the painting, so the painting observes another painting, the face observes the face". The entirety of all of Patrik Hábl's reinterpreted Old Master works was presented in this year's exhibition on the top floor of the DOX Contemporary Art Center tower. In the exhibition So Many Other Presences, the artist showed an almost unknown position of his work inspired by his long-standing fascination with classical portraiture and the human face. In a condensed installation of paintings, in addition to the complexity of perceiving the reality of the contemporary world, he also referred to the cabinet-like arrangement of historical picture galleries. Interventions in old art collections and creating a dialogue with the old masters using contemporary approaches to the art are also possible concepts. A painting from Patrik Hábl's "Old Masters" series is thus appearing on the auction market for the first time. The work was exhibited in the solo exhibition So Many Other Presences (2022) at the DOX Centre for Contemporary Art in Prague.