Figure 1960

This painting, "Figure" by Mikuláš Medek, is like looking into a cracked mirror, or maybe the surface of a disturbed pool. The cool blues and grays, punctuated by those startling pops of red, feel both unsettling and strangely familiar. Look at the texture, it's all scratched and layered, like the artist was digging into the surface, trying to unearth something hidden. See how the paint is sometimes thick and opaque, then thin and washy in other areas? I love that kind of back-and-forth, that play between revealing and concealing. It makes me think of a palimpsest, where old layers of writing are scraped away, leaving ghostly traces beneath the new. That circle, that void, is it a head, an eye, a portal? It reminds me a bit of Arshile Gorky’s biomorphic shapes, but with a darker, more melancholic edge. Medek's painting isn't giving up easy answers, and honestly, I find that’s the most interesting kind of art.