Bohumír Matal (1922-1988)

FIGURE

1968
Oil on hardboard, 43.5×24 cm (56×36 cm). Lower left, the artist`s dedication with date "Emilovi H. Matal 68". Mounted in passe-partout, framed. An important work by the Brno painter Bohumír Matal (1922–1988), the youngest member of Group 42. The painting dates from 1968, which is a turning point in the artist`s oeuvre, when after a period of stage design and architecture he returns to intensive painting and develops his key cycle The Presence of Man. The work captures the artist`s characteristic transition to geometric abstraction, in which, however, the motif of human existence remains strongly present. The vertical division and the circular segment in the right part are typical elements of Matal`s visual language of the late 1960s, when he reduces the figure to a system of lines and colour planes. Dedication: The addressee "Emil H." may refer to one of Matal`s close friends from the Brno intellectual circle (perhaps the architect Emil Hruška?). Here Matal uses hardboard to achieve a smooth surface on which he builds the composition with the help of pronounced contours and a contrasting palette (black, ochre, accents of yellow and red). This style foreshadows his later celebrated cycle Bird Actors. Condition B. Minor scratches.