Menu Search VHL web CS

KW: Personal Apocalypse

Illustration
  • Where: Montmartre Gallery
  • When: April 30, 2013, 19:00 – May 26, 2013, 18:00

Igor Korpaczewski (born Prague, 1959), who studied at Prague’s Academy of Fine Arts between 1983 and 1989, ranks among the most unmistakable solitary artists of the ‘80s generation. He focuses systematically on the different options offered by figural depiction, which occasionally results in work that is even conceptual. Operating under the pseudonyms KW and Q, he has taken part in many projects, both at home and abroad, since the 1980s. For two decades he has been an assistant at Jiří Sopek’s studio at the Academy of Fine Arts, where his marked influence on a younger generation of artists can be seen.

At Galerie Montmartre, Igor Korpaczewski is presenting paintings from the last 20 years that reflect the title Personal Apocalypse. Silhouettes of individual figures run through all of his canvasses – simple motifs of figures shut off in their own world and space. Though they may be depictions of concrete people, they do not aim to be “realistic” portraits. Figures, living in their own universe and transfixed via their own suffering to the thread of life, look outwards. Their stories, hidden behind the pictures, create a mirror for the viewer, while their general types and unstated roles allow for self-reflection within the “I–you” relationship shorn of a symbolic context.

Another very strong aspect of the pictures is their formal expression, with Korpaczewski moving between two distinct poles: the strong modelling illusion and elements of abstraction leading to surface expression. Despite the tension of various stains, colours and rhythms, together they create a harmonious whole. Through minor details in a figure’s face, for instance, Korpaczewski allows us to look into their (or our?) interior.

In Greek, apocalypse means revelation or disclosure. In this context, the Korpaczewski exhibition can be understood as a metaphor for the struggle for survival in everyday life. The possibility of detecting leaks into our invented worlds; of looking reality in the eye.

In that respect the words of Václav Boštík, which for Igor Korpaczewski also apply to his work, can be quoted here: “Pictures are just traces along the path that we’ve been down. They are a sign of the work on ourselves. They are questions, or answers to the questions we have posed.”

Share

Facebook | Twitter