Artwork of the month:
Michal Czinege — Shell & In Dark Cloud

Michal Czinege started painting both paintings at the beginning of the Covid 19 epidemic in 2020, more precisely during the period of the first compulsory isolation. So they were created at a time filled with very strange feelings and thoughts, which were gradually brought on by the uncertainty of the pandemic. That is why they also capture the moment of fogginess that this period brought and, of course, the anxious feeling of isolation. 

They are like petri dishes of a laboratory on which a bacterium or a virus colonisation is taking place. In the background of the paintings we can notice figures isolated in a transparent shape/cloud, and it is in their centre that the process of “colonisation” begins. 

In visualizing this act of colonization, the artist employed a different character of pictorial approach to achieve material transparency in the case of the so-called transparent clouds. Both paintings carry the heaviness of the time, but despite the very existential theme and the resulting feeling in them, Czinege also solves the very simple painterly problem of depicting the transparency of the material. He used two approaches to painting. One for the transparent cloud/shape and the other to depict the colonization of bacteria/virus.

In the first case, he used a fine lacquer layer of paint that allows us to see what is painted on the previous layer, i.e. the natural transparency of the material. A principle of painting that we have known since medieval panel paintings as glaze painting. For Czinege, as a painter, it is important to consider painting as a visual medium with a long tradition. Although these two paintings (Shell and In Dark Cloud, 2020) are not part of a larger series and are more in the nature of a diptych, they later led to the creation of a larger series of shaped paintings, Open Shells, in 2021.

Another purpose of this purchase for the collection was also an important fact – the artist’s ecological attitude towards the materials he works with, as well as his reflection of the technology with which the painting is created. Both acquired collection objects (paintings) are created (painted) with oil paints, the tubes of which are not industrially produced. The artist also tries to significantly limit the use of industrially produced paints themselves, creating and producing his own non-toxic paints. He is also intensely interested in finding historical and contemporary recipes for making plant-based paints and grounds. He also thinks about the future of the individual as part of a wider ecosystem. He considers how to replace the use of problematic materials and substances so that what he creates and uses in projects is degradable without toxic substances and microplastics. He is aware of the fact that any change of material often means finding a compromise between idea and form, which also raises questions about the durability of the materials he uses to create his paintings, objects and installations. Is it important to fix them, or is it better to leave them fragile and vulnerable, because even trying to make them durable has led us into the trouble we are in? Czinege recognizes how difficult it is to change established habits and how important it is to be quick and efficient in our (civilized) society. And it is the use of natural materials (at least in painting) that stands in opposition to this setting.

The addition of Michal Czinege’s works to the collection was prompted by the fact that the gallery’s depositories previously held only a single piece by the artist — Lost Island 13 (2005), created during his student years and donated directly by him in 2007. Given that Czinege has since established himself both domestically and internationally, the gallery sought to enrich the collection by representing the mature phase of his artistic career.