Vojtěch Kovařík Portrays a Forlorn Hero
At Mendes Wood DM, Brussels, the artist shares a more nuanced and melancholic vision of Hercules, one of art history’s most triumphant figures
Vojtěch Kovařík’s exhibition ‘The Labours of Hercules’ at Mendes Wood DM tells the story of one of art history’s most frequently illustrated iconographical subjects. Although the title alludes to the 12 tasks carried out by the classical hero Hercules as penitence for having killed his wife and children – after his stepmother, Hera, turned him temporarily insane – only one of the 12 paintings on display directly references its subject (Hercules Dips his Arrows in the Hydra’s Poisonous Black Blood, all works 2023). In marked contrast to the exalted attitudes of most representations of the scene, Kovařík does not depict Hercules triumphantly in medias res. Rather, the viewer is treated to a quiet, even melancholic portrayal. The massive, marble-white figure of Hercules is almost too big to be contained within the picture frame, and there is a look of forlorn concentration on the hero’s face.
Vojtěch Kovařík, (Portrait of) Hercules with his head in his hand, 2023, exhibition view. Courtesy: the artist
The statuesque figures in Kovařík’s paintings emote through gestures of classical sculpture. As a child, the artist and his siblings were shepherded by their parents to various museums and, every summer, from their home in Czech Republic to Greece, familiarising them with classical mythology as well as with the canons of painting and sculpture. The kaleidoscopic collage of influences is evident. The viewer can perceive, in the treatment of figures, the intentional maladdress of Pablo Picasso’s neoclassical period and, in the approach to colour and texture, the bold language of advertising as interpreted by Fernand Léger. There is the monumentality and solemnity of the sculptural figures of art deco, as well as something of the exuberance of socialist realism.
