Bidspirit auction | Petr Skácel (1924-1993)

Petr Skácel (1924-1993) - Petr Skácel (1924-1993). GARDEN OF DREAMS 1972 Oil on canvas, 127×167 cm (130×165 cm), marked lower right ”SP 72”. Unframed. A monumental painting from 1972 represents a striking example of the artist`s imaginatively oriented figurative work, in which symbolism, lyrical expressivity, and dreamlike imagery intertwine. The densely filled composition combines human figures, animal motifs, and fantastical landscape formations into a unified, flowing whole, which functions as a visual metaphor for life, birth and transformation. The painter works with a delicately trembling structure of colour matter and a rich, at times almost Pointillist modelling. The work of Petr Skácel in the 1970s moves within the context of Czech New Figuration and the imaginative current that built on the Surrealist tradition while simultaneously reacting to the existential atmosphere of the Normalisation period. In place of descriptive reality, an inner, symbolic world emerges, where the human figure becomes the bearer of more general themes – the relationship between man and nature, the cycle of life, and the spiritual dimension of existence. The presented work ranks among the artist`s ambitiously conceived large-format paintings, which represent his mature period and confirm his position among the distinctive representatives of imaginatively oriented Czech painting of the second half of the 20th century. Condition A.