16 Mar 2010

Viktor Pivovarov at The Moravian Gallery in Brno

Viktor Pivovarov at The Moravian Gallery in Brno

The exhibition of works by Viktor Pivovarov entitled Them contains a cross-section of the artist's work from the 1980s to the present day. The cornerstones are provided by a selection from cycles featuring, as their principal theme, beings imagined by the artist who stands them in front of him thus granting an independent existence to them. His Melancholics, Lemon Eaters, Good Lookers, Hermits, Immortal, Immaculate and other works now in the Moravian Gallery in Brno should not be missed by any lover of contemporary art or of more or less imaginary tales. Most of the paintings on display were made using oil on canvas, although among the over a hundred exhibits by this painter and illustrator who has exhibited in many places in Europe and Bohemia we can see, for example, a seven meter long watercolour The Sutra of Fear and Doubts from the year 2006.

Awaiting the visitors to the Pražák Palace are In Love, Tramp, Poet, Girl with a Lemon, as well as Hare in a Room, Three Men, a Girl and a Dog, or Twelve Eidoses with Attributes. They will put on an English Jumper, walk down No Name Lane, hear the Loud Voice of a Manager, spend a Night on a Roof, sit on a Green Divan, eavesdrop on a Conversation about High and Low Art or have Cockroach for Dinner … And they may even be faced with themselves, their own stories or ones from their neighbourhood … Although the Them in the exhibition title are the ideas, images and heroes that germinated in the mind of the artist or came to life as a result of his experience and experiences acquiring a concrete visual form, they have been severed from their creator and live an independent life in the material worldly and immaterial spiritual world.