Art fed by Art

How can a painter convey his fascination with painting of past eras, how can he recall ancient myths and legends, record eerie processes and shape grotesque objects, which come to us in dreams and vegetate in the twilight of everyday existence; why visualize emotions stirred by the overlapping of the past with the present, the near with the infinite? How can one save fragments of today in the database for an uncertain tomorrow? And in whom will all the intense creative effort and an unbraced form-creating imagination evoke a new aesthetical experience and contribute to feeling of the harmony of life? Such questions will have probably been posed in the silence of working concentration by Michal Tomek, an artist lonesome in his search for classical perfection of his paintings.

The artist’s creativity has been influenced not only by his pronounced dispositions but also by his demanding work as a restorer of frescoes and paintings. Michal Tomek’s work is precisely conceived on paper, parchment and canvas. It is surprising and may even elicit uncertainty in the contemporary viewer; it is hard to assign his work and slot it into the current mosaic of trends and styles, installations, mini-concepts, or multi-media projects. It steps aside and offers an intrinsic alternative. Michal Tomek’s art has integrated stimuli from the Rudolfinian Mannerist Arcimboldo and touched both cubists and surrealists; he utilizes traditional and well-proven painting techniques with masterly perfection. His decoratively compelling works contain both tales and mystifications. They inspire contemplation and yet leave space for personal fantasy; they pay tribute to the art of painting, indicating that the history of painting does not end in this century.

Dr. Eva BUŽGOVÁ


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