The primary roots of the work of Vladimír Houdek (b. 1984) are usually considered to reside in an awareness of the modernist context, and in its active continuation. These have certainly been the long-term hallmarks of his artistic language, which he has used to address the European art tradition, making it an integral part of one of its currents and developing it in his own singular way, while at the same time using it as a prism through which to react to his surroundings. This is only half the truth, however. No less important is another sphere – the content of his paintings – which (although it might seem implausible) lies primarily in Houdek’s personal mythology.

In his work, the objective thus meets the subjective and their interconnection engenders a new, combined quality whose potential consists of an internationally intelligible sign-language replete with specific references. Without exaggeration, from this viewpoint Houdek may also be perceived as a storyteller narrating concentrated visual stories about the formative influences in his life and the factors simultaneously shaping society.

Although Vladimír Houdek currently consistently expresses himself through a geometricizing abstraction that stems from formal reduction, to this day the universe of his artworks continues to be anchored in reality. For that matter, the series of work for which he received the 2010 Critics’ Award still makes frequent use of realistic shapes and forms, and at times he continues to use them in his collages. His compositions still include an ostensibly meaningless horizontal line – a low horizon –serving as a reminder of reality and repeatedly making an appearance in his paintings. In fact, it often acts as a springboard for the development of basic spatially generative relations, thus serving as a key reference for interpreting paintings that typically contain an explicit echo of landscape.

The other kind of reality present in his work is also specifically artistic. Besides influencing form as such, it also has an impact on his use of colour – this is because the characteristic yellow whose various shades appear in his paintings originally hails from an admiration of the work of Vincent van Gogh. At an intuitive level, it may also be reflected in the thick, impasto layers of paint accumulating on the edges of his painted boards. Both elements – landscape contextuality and the emotive effect of an iconic legend surrounding a painter – are an acknowledgement of a romantic accent to his work.

And then there are the actual visual designs of his paintings. Although he guides the drafts of his initial sketches towards a definitive formal outcome with an assurance almost befitting an engineer, the results are not merely pure, decontextualised, abstract constructs. On the contrary. Vladimír Houdek deliberately works with concrete models, whether they be old star charts or vaulting systems, in other words the paradigms of earthly civilisation, or general allusions to figuration and manifestations of humanity – these too are effectuated through the contrast between complex refinement and minor, but clearly evident manual “imperfections” such as various scuff marks, guiding notches and unfinished edges.

Vladimír Houdek’s paintings thus represent a universal platform encompassing the human being, the physical world and infinite cosmic space. They are an open sphere of symbols. Although it may throw us off balance, their nonliteral nature acts as an associational catalyst activating the imagination and potentially leading all the way into one’s own interior.

Radek Wohlmuth