page_title: Petr Kvíčala
section_title: Architectonic Interventions
hierarchical_section_title: Petr Kvíčala / Architectonic Interventions
caption_attribution_description: Čeština: Petr Kvíčala - Polytechnika EPFL, Lausanne, arch. Ivan Koleček.
context_page_description: Petr Kvíčala is one of the most significant personalities in Czech abstract painting. At the turn of the 1980s and 1990s he became a pioneer in discovering and promoting ornament as a unique individual phenomenon. He also significantly contributed to the acceptance of aesthetic qualities of visual art. Since 1995 he has undertaken commissions for architecture-related projects in which he has collaborated with a number of leading architects both from the Czech Republic and abroad. He has been a lecturer at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the Brno University of Technology, where he is in charge of a painting studio, since 1994. His works are represented in public and private collections.
context_section_description: Since the second half of 1990s painterly interventions into architecture are one of the main topics of Kvíčala’s work. He uses principles and themes from his paintings, which he strives to transfer to the specific architectural space. Kvíčala is also a coordinator of international educational and research project 2B2A, dealing with cooperation between art and architecture, its theoretical reflection and practical implementation.
  The very first painterly intervention into architecture Kvíčala made, was in the apartment of architect Ivan Koleček in Lausanne. „Southern part of the apartment, with windows facing the lake, contains the living space and the adjoining studies, while the northern part faces the town. I noticed that the southern exterior „pervades“ the house to such an extend that any change in weather and the continual play of light are reflected, by the great mirror of the lake surface, in the living space and becomes ts integral component. As a result, I decided to underline the opposing role of the dividing role relative to the view.“
  Major international project Kvíčala worked on in 2004, was new Deutsche Bundesbank building in Chemnitz (architect Josep Luís Mateo), where he realized the ceiling painting „Watermelon Cut – Ceiling Dance“. The painting on the entrance hall ceiling (exceeding 150 m² in area) is both a counterpoint and to the overall logic of the building and its complement. The paint application technique left the brush strokes visible as a sign of a human, yet artificial intervention in stark contrast to the abstraction of the organic construction materials, free of any trace of craftsmanship. Retaining the brushwork proved to be of importance in integrating the work within the architectural space, both as a nod to the process of making the painting and an element evoking the organic nature of the painting – a cut through the living tissue of a solid architectural form.
  In numerous sketches prepared for the painting I first examined the rhythm of the division relative to the format as well as the harmonization of colours with regards to the materials within the space. I continued by producing two cardboard paintings at the actual scale in order to be able to precisely determine the density of the network of lines, the magnitude of the waves and their thickness. While working on the cardboards I concluded that waves of this magnitude cannot be drawn using a standard method, as their dimensions surpass the physical capability of human being. I resorted to attaching the charcoal that I used for drawing on a long pole and, by standing on tip-toe and gyrating the whole body including carefully thought-out legwork, I negotiated smooth curves. I performed something short of a dance during which the body movement is transmitted into the lines drawn.
  In 2005 Petr Kvíčala cooperated, with architects A. Novák and P. Valenta, on the reconstruction of the historical building of Reduta theatre in Brno. He is author of the mural „40 Days of Red“ in Reduta ballroom hall, atrium floor and ceiling arches of the theatre café. The mural consists of layers of red undulating lines laid next to one another. on a red background. In each of the superimposed layer the undulating lines have a different direction. The monochrome effect of the red paint, together with the colour of the parquet flooring arranged into historical patterns conjures up a solemn ambience nurtured by the rare occurrence of the colour red in the nature patterns, and even more so by its endorsement of the cultural and historical tradition. „ The regular layers of repeatedly painted undulating lines impregnates the walls with aspects of time, exertion and sumptuousness. No celebration can take place without show and splendor as, in essence, a „purposeless“ celebration is the most natural human response to the mystery of life.“
  The motive of Memory cycle was used for wall paintings in Rischart building in Munich (2007). The target to achieve was to create environment which is not only positive but also outstanding and which makes it possible for the 
caption: University of Technology EPFL, Lausanne
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