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Filip Kudrnáč, born 1975, graduated from the Fine Arts Academy (AVU) in Prague this year where he studied in the studio of Professor Antonín Střížek (previously with Nepraš, Knížák, Veselý, Siegl, Hendrych, Demartini, and Dlouhý).
Filip Kudrnáč’s works are so unbelievably romantic and sublime that ironic remarks are an immediate danger. Easy targets. But an idyllic portrayal of a beautiful woman wearing a bikini with horses grazing in the background is, for obscure reasons, dominated by a logo from a contemporary fashion magazine, so what-ever’s going on, it’s not all that innocent. A male figure in another painting is sitting astride a gigantic swan and looks rather like Elvis Presley. Is Kudrnáč so calculating as to mix the bright colors of classical painting with pop icons? Neither ironic nor calculating, Kudrnáč actually believes boundlessly in his dreamed-up worlds. One painting shows a fashion model lewdly prostrate over an inscription and signature, all heart-framed. In another image a woman in a bikini is wading in a reservoir with Cupid shooting an arrow at the viewer from behind her back. Suspiciously, this Cupid resembles the artist, as does Kudrnáč’s bust, rendered a la Luke Perry, or is it James Dean? Kudrnáč does not experiment in his work and sticks to painting and sculpture. He lets the viewer know that his point is not ironic distance from today’s world, but a sincere attempt to walk in the footsteps of the classical painter, without cadging too many rides.
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