Hynek Martinec
The Birth of Tragedies
Hynek Martinec The Birth of Tragedies
25 May – 15 July 2017
Hynek Martinec’s second solo exhibition at Parafin develops his work’s ongoing engagement with art history and his search for visual connections between diverse historical moments. Martinec’s paintings and drawings explore ideas about time, history, reality and spirituality, often appropriating imagery from vintage photographs and the Old Masters, and these new works have been developed in response to an invitation from the National Gallery in Prague to respond to the museum’s Baroque collection.
The exhibition includes both paintings and drawings. The upper gallery is devoted to Martinec’s technically extraordinary hyper-realist paintings. These grisaille works address different registers of reality by bringing together historical and contemporary references. Martinec’s works seem to suggest that multiple realities – including the present and moments from history –can potentially exist simultaneously. Thus motifs from Van Dyck, Zurbarán and Rubens are interwoven with references to a contemporary technologically-enabled mediasaturated reality. In Circus of Nightmares (2017) a Van Dyck Satyr wears a Virtual
Reality headset, while in The Boat on The Moon (2017) an ultrasound image of an unborn baby appears to float in a void next to a scroll bearing the signature of Zurbarán. In the lower gallery a selection of Martinec’s recent drawings appropriate imagery from Old Masters and vintage photographs and combine them with the instantly recognisable signatures of great artists including Picasso, Degas and Duchamp. That the images and signatures do not match suggests a strange hybridity but also hints at the ongoing mechanism of artistic influence across time.
The title of the exhibition is drawn from an important early text by Friedrich Nietzsche. In The Birth of Tragedy (1872) Nietzsche argues for an immersive form of art, emphasising the passionate Dionysian above the rational Apollonian. For Martinec, Nietzsche is also important for his radical critique of Truth as well as the existence of God. Martinec’s work demonstrates his conviction that ‘truth’ is a fluid concept, constantly changing. And in the present historical moment, at a time of conflict and unrest, Martinec’s use of the plural ‘tragedies’ implies an unsettling currency.
Parafin
18 Woodstock Street
London W1C 2AL
44 (0)20 7495 1969
info@parafin.co.uk www.parafin.co.uk
parafinlondon
Directors
Ben Tufnell, Matt Watkins, Nick Rhodes
Gallery Manager
Christina Friis
Gallery Assistant
Marta Jiménez Tubau
Technicians
Aethan Wills, Alex Duncan
Installation Photography
Peter Mallet
All artworks © the artist
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N RAFI A P • N E • GN L DNA O LOND •
Cover: Hynek Martinec Circus of Nightmares 2017
Flogging Baroque Horse
2017
Oil on canvas
150 cm diameter, 59 1/8 in diameter
Circus of Nightmares
2017
Oil on canvas
170 × 240 cm, 66 7/8 × 94 1/2 in
The Shepherd Paris
2016 Oil on canvas
170 × 240 cm, 66 7/8 × 94 1/2 in
Portrait of Cornelis van der Geest
2016 Oil on canvas
60 × 60 cm, 23 5/8 × 23 5/8 in
06
The Vision
2016
Oil on canvas
80 × 60 cm, 31 1/2 × 23 5/8 in
The Chocolate Labyrinth and Tea
2016
Oil on canvas
80 × 60 cm, 31 1/2 × 23 5/8 in
Cross the Line
2016
Oil on canvas
80 × 60 cm, 23 5/8 × 23 5/8 in
2016
in
canvas
in 08 Brexit 2016
on canvas
60 cm,
in
Goodbye
Oil on canvas 80 × 60 cm, 31 1/2 × 23 5/8
Songs From the Last Century 2016 Oil on
80 × 60 cm, 31 1/2 × 23 5/8
Oil
60 ×
23 5/8 × 23 5/8
09
Boat on The Moon 2017 Oil on canvas 170 × 240 cm, 66 7/8 × 94 1/2 in Study of Baroque 2016 Oil on paper 56 × 77 cm, 22 1/8 × 30 1/4 in
The
Study of Baroque
2017
Crayon and oil on paper
56 × 77 cm, 22 1/8 × 30 1/4 in
Joseph Beuys
2017
Pencil and oil on paper
77 × 56 cm, 22 1/8 × 15 in
Hermaphrodite (collaboration with Viktor Pivovarov)
2016-17
Crayon and charcoal on paper
56 × 38 cm, 22 1/8 × 15 in
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Born 1980, Broumov, Czech Republic
Lives and works in London
Education
2004 Cooper Union, New York
2002 Middlesex University, London
1999-2005 Academy of Fine Art (MgA.), Prague
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2018 National Gallery, Prague
2015 Intellectual Properties, Galerie Vaclava Spaly, Prague
2014 Every Minute You Are Closer To Death, Parafin, London
2013 Flowers Gallery, London
2010 Lucky Man, Caroline Wiseman, London
2009 At The Same Time, Cosa Gallery, London After Holiday 1986, Czech Centre Gallery, Sofia
2008 Lost in Time, Cosa Gallery, London
2007 Czech Centre Gallery, Paris
Selected Group Exhibitions
2015 Blow Up: Painting, Photography and Reality, Parafin, London
2014 John Moores Painting Prize, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool
2013 BP Portrait Award, National Portrait Gallery, London
2012 Beyond Reality: British Painting Today, Galerie Rudolfinum, Prague Ein Weisses Feld, Schlachthaus Aschaffenburg
Coal and Steel, Candid Arts Trust Gallery, London
Coal and Steel, Czech Centre Gallery, Prague
2011 Encoded Systems, Read Gate Gallery, London
2010 BP Portrait Award, National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh
Passion for Freedom, UNIT 24 Gallery, London
TRANSFER, Czech National Building, New York
2009 BP Portrait Award, Southampton City Art Gallery, Southampton
BP Portrait Award, National Portrait Gallery, London
Prague Biennale 4, Prague
TRANSFER, MG Gallery, Brno
BP Portrait Award National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh
2007 BP Portrait Award, Tyne & Wear Museums, Newcastle
BP Portrait Award, National Portrait Gallery, London
2006 BLACK Art Festival, Pardubice
2005 Prague Biennale, National Gallery, Prague Gallery Foundation M + J Anderle, Prague
Prague’s Studios, Novoměstká Radnice Gallery, Prague
2004 Cooper Union Gallery, New York
2003 Čtvercová leč ARTTODAY, Nová Síň Gallery, Prague
Awards
2008 The Changing Faces, London
BP Visitor Choice, National Scottish Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh
2007 BP Young Artist Award, National Portrait Gallery, London
BP Visitor Choice, National Portrait Gallery, London
2003 Studio Prize, Academy of Fine Art, Prague
Collections
British Museum, London National Gallery, Prague
Sammlung FIEDE, Aschaffenburg
Standard Chartered Bank, London WCIT Collection, London
Bibliography
Every Minute You Are Closer to Death, Parafin, London, 2014
Beyond Reality British Painting Today, Rudolfinum Gallery, Prague, 2012
500 Portraits, National Portrait Gallery, London, 2011
Umění vnímat Umění, Michael Třeštík, Gasset, Prague, 2011
Prague Biennale 4, Giancarlo Politi Editore, Milan, 2009
RE-READING THE FUTURE, Mobility, National Gallery, Prague, 2008
2008
TRANSFER, WhiteBOX Gallery, Munich
International Triennale of Contemprary Art, National Gallery, Prague
Re-Reading The Future, Project Mobility, National Gallery, Prague Defenestrace, Novoměstská radnice Gallery, Prague
Hynek Martinec Paintings 1999-2008, Czech Centre, London, 2008
Hynek Martinec Biography
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