THE MUSE
JIŘÍ DOKOUPIL
Jiří Dokoupil is a Czech-German painter and graphic artist who rose to prominence in the 1990s. Dokoupil takes an unusually singular approach to his work, preferring to constantly seek out new styles and techniques with which to create his work.
Dokoupil was born in 1954 in Krnov—then part of Czechoslovakia—an ancient town on the Czech/Polish border. When his family moved to Germany in the late 1960s, his early love of art inspired him to study at the Academy of Fine Arts in Cologne. Later, he took post-graduate classes at the University of Frankfurt and at the Cooper Union, New York City.
In 1979, Dokoupil was a founding member of the art collective Mülheimer Freiheit, named after the street location of their studio. Nicknamed the Jungen Wilden, the “young wild ones,” the collective worked in the new neo-expressionist style, characterized by intense subjectivity and emotion, often through the use of vivid colors and fast execution. The collective also railed against current trends, particularly the conceptual and minimal art so popular in the 1970s.
In the 1990’s, Dokoupil emerged as a true artistic inventor, always looking for new ideas and approaches to creating art and reinventing his style and himself as he did so. One approach was to suspend a canvas from a ceiling, then use a lit candle to trace an image projected onto the surface. The soot from the candle created patterns and forms as he “painted” with his hand in midair, moving quickly for light and slowly for dark marks.
“I became obsessed with the idea of impossible paintings. I’m interested in media that you cannot control—so there is always a fight for something that is not strictly possible.”
Dokoupil’s bubble paintings also addressed the same obsession. By adding pigment to soap bubbles and guiding them to burst on the canvas, he achieved an image partly controlled by his hand and partly left to chance.
“The concept of painting with soap bubbles completely fascinated me because I was dealing with the idea of doing something with nothing.”
If Dokoupil’s work has a common thread, it is to confront the idea of a singular artistic approach or style. In doing so, he has developed an artistic philosophy that actively avoids any sort of common aesthetic. Rather, he has developed a catalogued body of more than 100 different styles and techniques that he chooses from in a systematized approach that removes notions of distinctive, personal expression. In that sense Dokoupil could be seen as an “artist inventor” of styles and techniques; ultimately a clearly conceptual approach.
“As a child I loved the Impressionists, and I am still in love with Impressionism, so I became some sort of a conceptual impressionist.”
“I think my way is the only possibility for me”
HAPPENING
Tuesday, December 14, 9–10:30am
Getting to Know Your Hamstrings
With Dianne Voikos
Are your hamstrings hight? Do you feel a pull in the back of your legs after getting up from sitting? Learn about the 3 muscles that make up the hamstrings and what role they play in everyday activities.
Shortened hamstrings can make individuals prone to hamstring strains and can pull on the lower back.
There are some important tips that are useful to know when massaging and stretching these muscles. Come and explore the hamstrings for this fun and informative workshop. $5 materials fee for Sports Balm.
$30 – Member, $35 – Non-Member
BOOK A LEG SESSION!