30.9. - 11.11. 2016

The Factory, London

Hynek Martinec’s paintings and drawings explore ideas about time, history, reality and spirituality, often appropriating imagery from vintage photographs and the Old Masters.

Martinec's exhibition at The Factory juxtaposes two distinct bodies of work. The first is a pair of large new paintings, based on vintage portrait photographs taken in the J. Svodboda Atelier [in Prague] in 1929. These new paintings are contrasted with a group of drawings that combine motifs from different art historical periods with images from vintage photographs and the instantly recognizable signatures of great artists including Picasso and Duchamp. That the images and signatures do not match suggests a strange hybridity but also hints at the ongoing mechanism of artistic influence across time.