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Synthetic paint, wood, hardboard. Dating from the early 1970s, this work heralds the influences of kineticism, minimalism and Poverism that are characteristic for this stage in Kotík's life and work. After the Warsaw Pact invasion in 1968, he took advantage of a DAAD scholarship and remained in West Berlin with his wife, Petra Příkazská. This experience among German artists, movement and cross-disciplinism led him to become a visual investigator who is best examined in the form of his conceptual experiments of the 1970s. From painting he shifted to objects, which he later deconstructed and reduced towards the end of his career. Jan Kotík is an important figure in 20th century Czech Art. He first exhibited his work in the late 1930s at E. F. Burian and when he was unable to exhibit in the 1950s, he focused on design – both as an artist and a theorist. He never stopped painting, however, and his expressive abstract works have earned significant international acclaim. He has also received awards in Germany for his work. PROVENANCE / Artist's estate, Jiří Švestka Gallery, Prague. LITERATURE / Jan Kotík (exhibition catalogue), Berlin 1971; Mladičová, Iva. Jan Kotík 1916–2002. Prague: National Gallery in Prague, 2011. p. 362. EXHIBITED AT / Kunstmuseum Bochum (1978); Kunsthalle Berlin (1971).