Vojtech Kolenčík has been involved in the Slovak art scene for over three decades. His work has profoundly influenced the character of contemporary Slovak painting and graphic art. Although he initially pursued a career in graphic art, he has been increasingly concerned with painting. Working in graphic art, particularly in colour serigraphy, he has gained a lot of experience, and this has enabled him to pursue the path to the phenomenon of painting.
In the course of the last decade, he has formed his conception of painting within the range and symbiosis of the elements of expressive and geometric abstraction. Colour has become the basis of his artistic language: colour as a plane, as a tonal value, as a blotch, sprayed, layered, dried, cracked, blended with sand and mixed with a variety of linear elements. Kolenčík understands abstract principles of form on the intersection of contrasting points of departure, both expressive and rational, one of them being dominant. Until recently the artist’s work has shown the prevalence of large format expressive gestural painting of analytical character. Kolenčík has succeeded in exploring the possibilities of colour, and in penetrating into the dynamic dimension of its inner structures.
At present Kolenčík’s inner compass is directed towards a more rational reconfiguration of form. The analytical principle has been replaced by the synthesis of form, reminiscent of some elements of geometric abstraction, which appeared in his work earlier. The picture plane is dominated by squares and diagonals, by circles and semicircles – executed as planes or structured by colour. The period of turbulence is followed by the period of balance, perhaps a desire for inner peace. The earlier disturbing openness is contrasted with enclosing, with an infinite movement in a circle, the beginning and the end at the same time. Both of these principles, openness and enclosing, are part of the complexity of Kolenčík’s world of art and complement each other.
Eva Trojanová