Concept, from the series Text Paintings

50 % of the hammer price is allocated to support the non-profit foundation Spolu s odvahou, a member of the Bátor Tábor Family.

A fundamental feature of David Hanvald’s painting is his exploration of the spatial possibilities of classical painting on canvas and the disruption of the boundaries between painting and object—between two-dimensional and three-dimensional work. Hanvald studied in the painting studio of Stanislav Diviš at the Academy of Arts, Architecture & Design in Prague, and it was there that he developed his signature conceptualized minimalist style. Hanvald works with colorful geometric shapes and simple brushstrokes on a white background. His style is based on American minimalism as well as other modernist movements, especially American abstract painting of the 1950s and 1960s. The canvas is often cut into atypical shapes which seem to penetrate into the space through an illusion of perspective, but the material itself is also often broken up into individual fragments and subsequently reassembled into a three-dimensional object. The combination of these principles in Hanvald’s work gives rise to suggestive dynamic visual effects. The painting Concept is part of the series Text Paintings, in which he uses writing that straddles the border between abstract forms and intelligible symbols. Although the meaning is clearly legible, Hanvald’s painterly execution using quick gestural strokes is reminiscent of both his own abstract language as well as calligraphy painting, which the artist became acquainted with during his residency in Beijing. The writing protrudes in front of the surface of the canvas and extends beyond the edges of the panel, thus emphasizing the objecthood of the work.