Bohumír Matal (1922-1988)

BOUQUET

1954
Oil on cardboard, 47x30 cm (69x52,5 cm), signed and dated in pencil upper left "MATAL 54". After the culminating phase of the late 1940s, with its thematic focus on the city, the individual, and their mutual relationships, Matala was struck by the arrogance of the regime, and the 1950s in his work are marked by anxiety and the search for its expression. At the same time, he formulated new perspectives on the human face, the figure, and inner psychological intimacy. Often small in format and intimate in character, these works reveal a world of the gentle and friendly atmosphere of the studio and of close persons in whom he could place full trust. Yet they are always accompanied by a sense of a certain loneliness and at times anxiety, together with a degree of indeterminacy. The work offered here is a thoroughly typical example of this period, though with the subject of a bouquet, which is not very common in Matal’s oeuvre. Condition A. Consulted with Mgr. et Mgr. Martina Šviková-Mrázová.