Hynek Martinec

Hynek Martinec (born 12 November 1980 in Broumov) is a Czech-British painter, who graduated from the Studio of Classical Painting Techniques under the supervision of Zdeněk Beran at the Academy of Fine Arts, Prague. After his studies he left for Paris (2005-2007) and since 2007 has been living in London. He received the prestigious BP Young Artist Award for his hyperrealistic portraits. His paintings are inspired by Old Masters and/or photographs, which link the past with the future, using modern technologies.

Life In his hometown of Broumov and its surroundings Hynek Martinec was able to absorb the architecture of Dientzenhofer together with Czech Baroque painting. Since his childhood he drew extensively and already when he was 8–9 years old he discovered the world of classical music. As an 11-year-old boy, in 1991, he was successful in an art competition in Náchod and one painter of the jury offered him private classes and a thorough training in realistic painting. A year later he was taking classes from another painter, who exposed him to the world of abstract art.

After finishing primary school Martinec studied design at Uherské Hradiště for one year and then transferred to the Secondary Art School of Václav Hollar in Prague. Between 1999 and 2005 he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts, Prague at the Studio of Classical Painting Techniques under the supervision of Zdeněk Beran. During his studies he spent an exchange year at Middlesex University, London (2002) and a six-month exchange at the Cooper Union in New York (2004). In 2003, he received a studio award from the Academy of Fine Arts and in 2004 he was awarded as the best Academy student.

Following graduation he spent two years in Paris in a rented studio before deciding to move to London after receiving the Young Artist Award for artists under 30 in 2007, and at the same time the BP Visitor Choice for his portrait of Zuzana in Paris Studio (2006-2007). The painting was chosen among 60 finalists from 1,870 applications. In 2008 he received the Changing Faces Prize organised by the National Portrait Gallery, London for the painting Bagram in New York (2004) and BP Visitor Choice at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh.

Hynek Martinec lives and works in London and is represented by Parafin Gallery. His partner Zuzana Jungmanová heads the Czech School Without Borders with around 200 children from the Czech community in London.

Awards 1991 Art Competition, Náchod 2003 Studio Award of the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague 2007 BP Young Artist Award, BP Visitor Choice, National Portrait Gallery, London 2008 The Changing Faces Prize, Royal Society of Portrait Painters, London, BP Visitor Choice, Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh

Work Works during his college days include still lifes, winter mountain landscapes and several portraits. Painted during his studies in New York his portrait called Begram in NY (2004) was later awarded The Changing Faces prize . His graduation project included five large-format genre paintings from the Motol Hospital.

When a friend offered him the use of his studio in Paris, Martinec focused primarily on the project Cabling (2005-2007) that he perceived as a way to scan the past. Paris inspired him to use more colours and abstract painting. At the same time, he created a hyperrealistic portrait of his partner Zuzana Jungmanová. Zuzana’s glasses mirror the whole studio space, even with a fragment of the Paris landscape behind the window. The painting thus represents a record of the painter’s life in this period. Martinec applied with the portrait Zuzana in Paris Studio (2006-2007) to the prestigious National Portrait Gallery, London, BP Portrait Award competition and received the first prize for artists under 30, a success which prompted his move to London.

In 2008, he created the project Lost in Time inspired by the brutalist architecture of the National Theatre and the colourful patterns projected on its façade. At the centre of the whole series are black and white brush drawings, dark atmosphere and subtle artificial colouring.

After three years in London, painting mostly city motifs, Hynek Martinec realised that he had exhausted the possibilities of hyperrealist painting and started missing its emotional aspect. He got in touch with his photographer friend, a connoisseur of old photographic techniques. And through the creation of ambrotypes and daguerreotypes of Zuzana, he consequently transferred to monochrome large-format painting (Zuzana 1848, 2012, 244 x 184 cm, Zuzana 1854, 2012, 255 x 184 cm), attempting a certain journey back in time. The photographic technique of the 19th century presented the topic of time from a different angle than the painted image. By simulating old photographic technical aspects these paintings are freed from the boundaries of hyperrealism and move towards imagination of an autonomous parallel world. For a certain period, Martinec left acrylic behind and started his series of monochrome oil paintings in the historicising tone of sepia brown, resembling old photographs and which he continues to today.

In the following years, Martinec focused mostly on still lifes with existential undertones (Every Minute Closer to Death, 2013). Smaller formats often feature a quenched candle as a classical symbol of immortality (It Is Hard to Remember, 2014). The white paraffin could refer to the name of a gallery representing Martinec in London, but as such, also has a special aesthetic quality. At the point where the still life depicts only a single object, the technical perfection of painting becomes a tool towards meditating about time (Sigrun’s Bread, 2015) and sometimes he explicitly challenges the viewer to do so (The Propeller, 2015).

As an abstract spatial model Martinec often uses shaving cream that, as an ephemeral form, represents an absolutely contemporary symbol of vanitas (Where Do You Wander, John, 2014). At times, the cream resembles Baroque stucco reliefs and bestows the work with hidden sexual undertone or on the contrary, isolated cold. An intense death cult standing at the core of the Catholic Baroque simultaneously bears a strong need to aestheticize death. “Ice-cold Baroque” of Martinec transforms the idea of the Baroque world and exposes death not in the figures of saints, but simply in perfect and finished forms. Some forms are executed as three-dimensional structures in the acrylic matter of jesmonite (Fantasy Meets Brutal Reality, 2018).

In 2014, he started to incorporate old photographs in oil paintings and with small details out of different context linked with the contemporary world (Flyover into the Different Time, 2014). Since 2015, a subtle colouring has been once again appearing in Martinec’ chiaroscuro still lifes (Sigrun’s Bread, 2015). The fascination with Old Masters is further intensified at his exhibition in 2015 in Prague. In this period, he created the painting El Greco is Watching (2016) that is a true black and white copy of El Greco’s Christ at the National Gallery in Prague. Other paintings are open combinations of art inspired by works such as the Baroque self-portrait by Anthony van Dyck with Magritte’s pipe (The Vision, 2016) and/or use allusions borrowed from different classical works to create new and unexpected combinations (Allegory of the Internet, 2017). The painter experiences the world he lives in, but the political events directly influencing his life are commented on with alternative and hidden symbols (Brussels, 2016; Brexit, 2016).

The paintings by Martinec are preceded by an associative idea sourcing inspiration from literature or reflection of personal experiences linked to another artwork. References in titles of works are usually associated with philosophy, that of Nietzsche and Wittgenstein in particular, and topics of discussions with his brother (The Birth of Tragedies, 2018). 2016 Hybrid, The Factory, London 2016 Thank You For Looking at Me, Iceland 2017 The Birth of Tragedies, Parafin Gallery, London 2018 El Greco is Watching, Spain 2018 Voyage to Iceland, Sternberg Palace, National Gallery Prague 2018 Kilian Ignaz D., Galerie Dům, Broumov 2019 The Everyday Archive, Brixton Beneficiary, London 2020 The Same for Everyone, Parafin Gallery, London Group shows (selection) 1999/2000 Artist Autumn in Náchod. 16th edition of regional art display, Gallery of Fine Art in Náchod 2001 AVU Studios / School of Painting of professor Zdeněk Beran, Wortner House of Aleš Southbohemian Gallery, České Budějovice 2004 Cooper Union Gallery, New York 2005 Nudes in Action / Graduate Exhibition of the Studio of Classical Painting of prof. Zdeněk Beran, Šumava Museum, Kašperk Mountains, Galerie Diamant, Prague 2005 AVU Graduates 2005, Trade Fair Palace, Prague 2005 Prague Biennale, National Gallery Prague 2005 Gallery Foundation M + J Anderle, Prague 2005 Prague’s Studios, New Town Hall Gallery, Prague 2006 Still Lifes, Gallery of Modern Art in Hradec Králové 2006 BLACK Art Festival, Pardubice 2007 BP Portrait Award, National Portrait Gallery, London, Tyne & Wear Museums, Newcastle 2007 Members Exhibition of Mánes Association of Fine Artists L-O, Galerie Diamant, Prague 2007/2008 Collective Exhibition: 2008 Calendar, Galerie DO/OKA, Prague 2008 Defenestration: Graduate and Student Exhibition of AVU, Studio of prof. Zdeněk Beran, New Town Hall Gallery, Prague 2008 Transfer, White Box, Munich 2008 International Triennale of Contemporary Art, National Gallery Prague 2008 Re-Reading The Future, Project Mobility, National Gallery Prague 2009 Transfer, House of the Lords of Kunštát, Brno 2009 Prague Biennale 4 / Prague Biennale Photo 1, Karlín Hall, Prague 2009 BP Portrait Award, National Portrait Gallery, London, Southampton City Art Gallery, Southampton 2010 BP Portrait Award, Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh 2010 Passion for Freedom, UNIT 24 Gallery, London 2010 Transfer, Czech National Building, New York 2011 Encoded Systems, Read Gate Gallery, London 2012 Beyond Reality: British Painting Today, Galerie Rudolfinum, Prague 2012 Ein Weisses Feld, Schlachthaus Aschaffenburg 2012 Coal and Steel, Candid Arts Trust Gallery, London, Czech Centre Gallery, Prague 2013 BP Portrait Award, National Portrait Gallery, London 2014 John Moores Painting Prize 2014 at the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, as part of the Liverpool Biennial 2015 Blow Up: Painting, Photography and Reality, Parafin, London 2016 YIA # 7 (Young International Artists) Paris, represented by ZAHORIAN & VAN ESPEN 2017 Arc of Memory, Zahorian & Van Espen, Prague 2017 Fascination with Reality: Hyperrealism in Czech Painting, Museum of Art Olomouc 2019 Vanité, Brixton Beneficiary, London 2019 In Living Memory, Emo Court in collaboration with OPW (Oliver Sears Gallery), Republic of Ireland 2020 The Same For Everyone, Parafin, London 2020 Inspiration - Iconic Works, Nationalmuseum Stockholm 2020 Inspiration - Iconic Works, Ateneum Art Museum, Finnish National Gallery, Helsinki 2020 COMPLEX STATES: Art in the years of Brexit, Gallery 46, London, International and virtual exhibition, Worldwide 2020/2021 Vanitas, Dox Centre for Contemporary Art, Prague