Petr Pelzmann

is a painter with heart and soul, he paints therefore he exists. However, today’s world is overwhelmed by meaning and the need to tell, as if it no longer perceives the piercing silence of a painting’s composition and the playfulness of colors. The painter is an exhibition about painting, fragility and the endless struggle to cross the border in the desire for perfection.

A painter is a visual artist, he transforms his vision, experience and insight into a pictorial form with the property of preserving values. The painter records, describes, thinks critically, researches. At the same time, however, he creates a fantasy world unique to his own world. But who is Petr Pelzmann and what is his work?

Pelzmann is a painter, self-taught, his teachers are the past and the present. He admires the works of the old masters, but goes beyond his love of their works to find his manuscript with unrelenting vigor. Here in the room is a bowl of fruit – a still life – an ideal picture, perfect proportions, but the work ends up being forgotten for its perfection. The author is not satisfied with the perfect processing of the form. He re-interprets, destroys, transforms and deconstructs to find a manuscript that suits his liking. The question is the author’s tendencies and motivations towards his work. Is it trust or distrust? Joy or sadness? Depression or life? Pelzmann is somewhere in between and draws from it, he is committed to this fact, this uncertainty and, in a naive way, dreams of a better life, of love and harmony.

Peter Pelzmann’s work is far from perfect, and that is precisely why it is perfect. He does not direct his work towards trends in works of art or procedures in contemporary painting, he paints and thus exists. Does that seem naive? It could, but it isn’t. He is a painter with heart and soul, divine or cursed, but who can really judge this contribution? There is an essence in his works that one admires today in numerous art collections. It is uncertain in its own way, but in this uncertainty there is a bravura naturalness and beauty with the already mentioned handwriting of the author.

What I find in the space of Pelzmann’s studio never ceases to fascinate me, various studies, clippings of work sheets, unfinished canvases casually lying in the space complement the overall atmosphere of the painter’s room. I’m inspired, I go through every little sign and I can’t stop wondering. Pelzmann’s world is the essence of why art is art. Unrelenting conversation and insight, inspiration, the process of creation.

text from solo exibition (Painter 2024, Galerie HYB4, Praha)

by: Michal Štochl

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