At first glance, they appear to be simple forms: a line, a curve, a circle, a square. And colours, lots of colours, spreading across the surface and repeating again and again. But when the gaze lingers, these forms begin to transform. They repeat, accumulate, vary in scale and combine in different ways, creating a sense of rhythm and movement within the confines of the painting.
It is from these very basic forms that Petr Kvíčala has developed his own pictorial language over more than forty years. The Czech artist is now presenting his work in Spain for the first time with Prelude, an exhibition at Palau Martorell that brings together a selection of works from the past decade. Curated by Rubén Torres, the exhibition reveals how the same form can produce remarkably different results as colour, scale, density and repetition change. The title of the exhibition, Prelude, refers precisely to this initial movement: the first form that sets a new composition in motion. In a sense, the exhibition at Palau Martorell —Kvíčala’s first exhibition in Barcelona and in Spain— also marks the beginning of a new chapter in his artistic practice.