(born in Krnov in 1954)
Untitled, 2016/18, signed twice on the overlap Dokoupil and inscribed with the measurements, soap-lye and pigments on canvas, 155 x 205 cm, on stretcher

Provenance:
Private collection, Germany – directly from the artist

„A feeling of weightlessness is created.”
Dokoupil Bubbles in Flanders, Guy Pieters Gallery 2015

The oeuvre of the German-Czech painter, drau ghtsman and graphic artist Jirí Dokoupil contains a multitude of works in different styles and techniques. Due to his tireless drive for innovation, the artist ne ver allowed himself to be pinned down to one parti cular style from the very beginning, always inventing new and sometimes unconventional techniques.

The present work is from the series of soap bubble paintings. The series is one of Dokoupil’s most suc cessful series and has been a constant in his exten sive oeuvre for many years. For these soap bubble paintings, the artist developed a special technique in which he bursts soap bubbles on the canvas with the help of a metal rod enriched with a binding agent and paint. When the bubbles burst, they leave their image on the monochrome pictorial support. In reality, the soap bubbles exist for fi ve or six seconds, but on the monochrome canvas they fl oat on, hoping to last for eternity in Dokoupil’s paintings. The closed forms of the amorphous structures have a high luminosity and vividly stand out from the canvas. The colours are particularly intense, as Dokoupil himself says:

“It took me a long time to get the right mixing ratio of lye, binding agent and colour pigments. There are also real artifi cial diamonds among them. This is a new kind of dust that has the quality of artifi cial dia monds." (https://www.wz.de/nrw/duesseldorf/die-sei fenblase-als-koenigin-der-malkunst_aid-25720165)

The soap bubbles have a dense, metallic sheen. The colours are also iridescent, so that they seem to change depending on the incidence of light and the angle of view. The way the images are perceived is constantly changing, captivating the viewer. The soap bubbles depicted, which are closely arranged next to each other and sometimes on top of each other, have a hypnotic effect. The monochrome blue back ground has an infi nite depth and is reminiscent of photographs taken underwater. The iridescent soap bubble paintings are fascinating, delicate, and seemin gly fl eeting. Dokoupil uses the soap bubble to en chant us and draws us under its spell.