Lot 586 D

Zdenek Sýkora is considered to be one of the first artists who, as early as in the 1960s, calculated his paintings with a computer and then manually transferred the outcome onto canvas. Later, he applied the same process to his Line Paintings, although he also created a more pronounced contrast between the dynamism of the curved lines and their systematic, computer-generated origins. Each curvature, the thickness of the lines and even the choice of colours is based on a number combination, calculated by a computer program.
Hans-Peter Riese described these Line Paintings as “summing up the work of Zdenek Sýkora [...], because they prove that there is no irreconcilable contradiction between artistic freedom and self-determination, on the one hand, and a methodical and systematic approach, on the other. Nevertheless, there is one misunderstanding that must always be avoided in this context. Although Sýkora worked with computer programs, his art is by no means a form of “computer art”. Sýkora uses a computer in a strictly subordinate role, giving it a function which only a machine can assume in the artistic process. However, the rationality that underlies Sýkora's pictorial schemes is a conscious control over creativity and its artistic outcome. As a result, his paintings are also models of a contemporary world.” (Hans-Peter Riese, Zu den “Linienbildern” von Zdenek Sýkora, in: Städtisches Museum Abteiberg Mönchengladbach (ed.), Zdenek Sýkora, Linienbilder aus den Jahren 1986-1990, exh.cat., Städtisches Museum Abteiberg Mönchengladbach, Mönchengladbach 1992, p.9)