Daniel Pitín

Daniel Pitín

The young painter and recent graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague engages in illusive painting whose composition and kind of obscureness are reminiscent of film scenes or colorful dreams. His figural scenes which seem to be taken out of a dramatic story, his empty places where something has just happened or is bound to happen make a disturbing impression on the viewer. They are reminiscent of the Fellini model of guilt felt by a bystander as something mysterious and criminal. The masterfully executed paintings testify to the artist’s talent which has been recently recognized also by gallery owners abroad. Daniel Pitín is one of the great hopes of the contemporary painting school which competes with less comprehensible conceptual projects in galleries. “Painting helps me discover a new space which I try to comprehend and make it comprehensible for others. As a matter of fact, I only offer it for adjustment. It is not precisely said, however, because if an adjustment were really made, I would have to change that milieu. It may be the reason why the figures in my paintings are so flabbergasted and uncertain as if they were learning to walk anew. They must constantly adjust. I deal with space.... I don’t know, I may have been influenced by contemporary Europe, its constant moving, people without roots. A structure, a new apartment, a new city. Stage decoration and room for deceit. Or a kind of virtual space but not the really virtual one but the one which is formed in our subconscious owing to virtuality. But now I am talking about how it sometimes affects me as a viewer. When I work, it means something completely different. I don’t create any interpretations. Space exists somewhere beyond my considerations and to approach it may be one of the main motivations of my work. Maybe I show what this space covers. The problem however was in language, i.e. a way of how it would be possible to talk about these fantasies without immediately falling in categories surrounding the painter’s world. I have decided to highlight and overexaggerate different painting methods. As you know, I dealt with all kinds of film for a long time and once I even tried to make one. In painting, film helped me overcome a lot of problems with especially figural painting and find other things, too. The stage decoration behind the film shots gradually prevailed. I began to view film from a distance, from outside the film camera, into the lights and at the structure of supporting walls. In painting, it also meant something else. Owing to this model, I discovered a construction of painting. As a matter of fact, I don’t know what came first, if it was deconstruction of painting or my efforts to debunk a film shot. It probably went hand in hand. Important is that in several of my latest paintings, this construction began to stand on its own without imitating anyone. At one point I realized that what I work on is the reality which may be reminiscent of our perceivable world with some outside qualities but it does not have to be one. It was very liberating.” (from an interview for Flash Art)

 

Daniel Pitín

* 1977, Prague, Czech republic

Education

1994–1999 The Academy of Fine Arts in Prague – Studio of Zdeněk Beran, Classical Painting 1999–2002 The Academy of Fine Arts in Prague – Studio of Professor Miloš Šejn, Conceptual Art

Solo Exhibitions

2009 | Daniedl Pitin - Men in a Garden