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'Mild Rain II' - Pavel Roucka
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Pavel Roucka lives and works in Prague, Czech Republic.
On the occasion of an exhibition of his work in Berlin, in 2010, identical article about the artist.
Roučka phenomenon
Pavel Roučka
Saarländische Galerie, Berlin 2-5-2010 - 4-4-2010
Pavel Roučka is that rare artist whose work has long continued to increase in expressiveness and monumentality. Although he originally emerged from the New Figuration, he gradually freed himself from various influences to arrive at his own unmistakable form of expression. He moves along the margins of abstraction, but his paintings always show human traces. The character of the figures is captured in simple, basic forms that are always based on knowledge of reality and thus retain their vitality. He used to work with expressive colors, but today often covers them with subdued colors until only fragments remain. In his paintings, spaces permeate each other. He emphasizes depth using various means of expression and works increasingly intensively with light. But content is also important, and Roučka's paintings combine a wide range of stories and situations. Important element are the characteristic movements that in different iterations repeatedly end up in his drawings and paintings.
After 2001, Roučka began working with industrial panels, exchanging his brush for a saw, a metal cutter and a drill with which he makes his mark on the large, immaculate and impersonal surface. He installs his paintings in the center of the room because they make a different impression from each side. In this way, the paintings become more and more emphatic with the chosen setting. Sometimes Roučka also makes use of unusual materials. For example, he works with the texture of cement, which sometimes even dominates the painting, from which all color disappears.
Pavel Roučka creates his most distinctive works when he pushes his choice of expressive tools to the limit, when he softens the color scale or when only dominant accents remain. When the figure is reduced to the smallest traces and only something like gestures remain. The power of his painting lies in the concentration of texture, form and tone. At the same time, however, the figure never completely disappears; instead, it constantly rejuvenates his style while offering a connection to reality. Lines have always been an important element in Roučka's work. It is here that the later paintings are born. In short, they become a diary recording ideas, impressions and feelings that can be expressed in his paintings at any time in the future. The lines are often very subtle and fragile. They are fragments of reality and information about the environment in which we live. They become touches through which the artist tries to understand and shape various events taking place in nature and society. Roučka frequently uses recycled cardboard and sometimes tears forms from his older drawings. This is in fact the moment when the different levels of meaning and time in which the drawings are made come together. The result is a sense of tension between the different stages of his constantly changing view of the world. The paintings evolve ambiguously. Sometimes they arise quite spontaneously, naturally, all at once. They reflect a series of moments and the happy culmination of effort (and often long search). Roučka always works systematically, leaving nothing to chance. Sometimes he repaints his works over and over, looking for new possibilities of expression. He tries to exhaust each subject to the limit and only then abandons it for good - for him that is now history. His path is not easy or clear, and sometimes requires him to go back and re-evaluate. Rationality and emotion are balanced. Traditional instruments alternate or are complemented by new approaches. Roučka has made several important discoveries in recent years, finding for himself unusual forms of expression. He started using industrial panels, which he shapes in an industrial way. By doing so, he creates a contrast between the purity of the surface and the shapes he cuts into it, combining different surfaces and spaces. The purity of the virgin surface merges with the rough action of the different tools. The result is a tension between austere minimalist sensibility and expressive action, between traditional methods and the courage to apply unusual or even untested approaches. Sometimes inspiration comes randomly and organically - for example, combining painting with "masonry" methods, using the possibilities of cement texture. These approaches also cause a change in style in line with the chosen material.
Jiří Machalický
ConditionExcellentColorsWhite, Purple, Black, Grey, YellowMaterialPaperNumber of items1OrientationPortraitArt sizeMediumHeight79 cmWidth61 cm