Vladimír Suchánek

“First I did black and white lithography, later I moved to multicolor prints. There was always suspense in the creative process and the way from the original sketch to the final printout is veiled by a great mystery. The lithographic colors are transparent and so when printing in four or five, tones emerge by colors being printed one over another. My distinctive expression emerged thanks to the fact that when I did a landscape, a figure was creeping into it. I used my imagination and created compositions while being fascinated by the spiral. Natural themes in my method came out differently than during my studies. Second of all, it is thanks to lithography as a technique. When I grab a pen, my handwriting is never as distinct as when I take a stone and talk to it. The legendary pressman Václav Vejvoda used to say that stones have a soul and I have to agree with him: the stone really is a peculiar material. At the beginning I am nervous in its presence, almost fearing to make the first stroke but then a dialog starts unwinding between us – and sometimes the stone helps me out. For instance when ink is drying out and is well diluted, it creates a structure which seems random but I already know to work with such effects. I call my method regulated coincidence. I draw the coincidence’s hand but I never know what will the print look like; I let the result surprise me.”

“Black and white graphics is the queen and I always say I will return to it; but then I can’t resist and add some color. At the time when I began doing and printing graphics I liked sky blue which they even attributed to my style. I supplied my friend, the Dutch poet Boudewijn Büch with graphics for his poetry collections and in one of the poems Boudewijn writes about ‘Suchánek’s blue’, his favorite tone in my graphics. This renowned blue began with Chopin. I used to live in Mariánské Lázně where they hold Chopin’s festivals, I made Chopin’s portrait in black and sky blue, and I liked the combination. But over time, blue disappeared… These days I use it very rarely. I use olive green and purple as a base and I think this combination reflect the influence of art nouveau. Sometimes I complement the two with brick red but I have to say it is all intuitive, as I am led by the print. Only when I make a print of two colors I decide which one I put in as the third. Usually, I do four colors, sometimes five.”