Detail

Lines with different widths, colors, and curves are distributed on a white surface. They overlap, cluster, or end abruptly. There are also some dots. One might think that this painting is the result of a free and expressive act, or just some large doodle. But go a little closer and look again at these shapes. Can you see how precisely these lines have been drawn? And how perfectly painted the dots are? This painting, “Lines No. 15,” by the Czech artist Zdenek Sykora, is a very strictly calculated composition. Sykora was one of the first artists in his country to use a computer for his art. He never lets a computer generate the whole image, but uses it instead as an aid: “I use the computer like Leonardo used a ruler and dividers,” he says, “as a tool that has no direct influence on the finished artwork.” Sykora’s pictures are a combination of intuitive decisions and computer-generated random calculations. First, the artist decides on a number of parameters that will determine the result, like the width of the lines, the course they will take, how they will change direction, the shape of their curves, and their color. On the basis of this the computer generates random number values that Sykora then transfers into his painting. This means that we perceive the picture as a section of a larger unit or system of coordinates. Look at the upper right—the canvas comes to an end but the lines appear to continue. The format of the square, Sykora says, is perfect for showing the unfinished lines and their continuation beyond the margins of the canvas. Asked whether his work relies more emotions or the intellect, calculation or intuition, Sykora says: “It would be advisable to eliminate all contrasting distinctions between subjective and objective creativity, because the two processes run in parallel and cannot be separated from each other. Although I use systems in my works they are still paradoxically the results of my intuition.”