SYKORA,ZDENEK

* 3.2.1920 Louny, † 12.7.2011 Louny

The Czech painter Zdeněk Sýkora was one of the most widely exhibited and innovative exponents of Concrete and Constructivist Art. For his line paintings, which were produced from 1973 onwards, this pioneer of computer art achieved great recognition worldwide. Zdeněk Sýkora was born on 3 February 1920 in Louny (former Czechoslovak Republic, now the Czech Republic). From 1945 to 1947, he studied art education, descriptive geometry, and sculpture at the Technical University in Prague. After his studies, Zdeněk Sýkora initially devoted himself to landscape painting. At the same time, he worked first as an assistant and then, from 1966 to 1980, as a lecturer at the Institute of Art Education at Charles University in Prague.

By reducing natural forms and colours, Zdeněk Sýkora gradually arrived at a form of geometric abstraction with a systematic pictorial structure: the Structural Pictures. With them, Zdeněk Sýkora found a pictorial solution to the relationships between form and colour. From 1964 he became one of the first artists to make use of the computer in order to calculate the random distribution of geometric forms and to formulate his pictures. His friendship with the mathematician Jaroslav Blažek gave him access to one of only two computers in the country in those very early days of the digital age. In 1963 Zdeněk Sýkora joined the artists' association "Křižovatka" in Prague. From the second half of the 1960s, his works were increasingly shown in major international exhibitions of Structural Art. In 1968, he took part in the prestigious documenta 4 in Kassel.

At the beginning of the 1970s, a renewed artistic process began for Zdeněk Sýkora. He developed a new system based on the principle of chance, which was the foundation for his line paintings. Released from the structural grid, the line henceforth allowed him greater painterly freedom, which he used with great conviction from 1973 onwards. In 1983 he married the artist Lenka Sýkorová, with whom he worked from 1985. What is fascinating and very unusual in the sphere of Concrete Art is that Sýkora, who was a celebrated exponent of non-representational painting all over the world, simultaneously continued to paint landscapes into old age. To this day, Zdeněk Sýkora remains one of the most important artists in his country. His works are to be found in both international and Czech collections. Zdeněk Sýkora died in Louny on 12 July 2011.