Works in Progress
At first glance, Vladimír Houdek’s paintings resemble geometric ornaments, featuring circles, squares, ellipses, diamonds, and fans that intersect and connect in ever-changing variations. Created in series, these paintings give the impression of a continuous process, driven by formal order and understood as abstract, self-referential structures.

However, Houdek’s work plays a multi-layered game with meaning. While he initially draws inspiration from abstract art pioneers like Malevich, Kupka, and Mondrian, he questions this formal language by placing abstract elements in real-world contexts. Although his forms appear abstract, they evoke representational meanings or associations, blurring the line between abstraction and reality.

For example, the open fanfolds and dissolved loops in some works suggest three-dimensional structures, lending spatial depth to otherwise flat forms. These shapes take on a surreal quality, appearing as objects floating in space. Fans and rotating disks in his paintings similarly evoke shells, turbine rotors, or fantastical flying machines, while other shapes resemble open books or shelves. The wealth of associations is further enhanced by the titles of certain works, which anchor these abstract forms in figurative contexts.

This excerpt is from a text by Zdeněk Felix.