The Kampa Museum is one of my favorite museums in the world.
One of my favorite artists featured in the museum was Milan Grygar. My sister and I explored the many facets of his work one afternoon in Prague which began with his paintings. Then we were introduced to his real magic, which were the videos of his work.
His first video is just a big white piece of paper at first. Then two arms poke through, along with two legs, and a bowl of black paint. The hands start working their magic as they start dabbing away at the white sheet to create what almost looks like a complete circle. So we sat there for what felt like fifteen minutes, watching him dab away with his blackened fingertips, and when he was finished he carefully retreated from the four paper holes and set the paint down. Then we watched as he torn the paper around the work he had just painted until it was just a huge hole in a huge piece of white paper. And that was the end.
The Second video began with him playing around with a bunch of different wind up toys, mostly birds. He eventually wound them all up as he lighted a match that the birds held in their beaks, or he would dip their beaks in ink and let them go! They danced around the paper, each one leaving a different trail behind them. When they stopped, or when all the matches went out, he collected them all, brushed the extra ash off and his work was finished. It was amazing.
Grygar’s work made me rethink how I examine art. I remember going through the rest of the museum fascinated by how I imagined the artist would be creating their work. Assuming that all of their processes wouldn’t be the same or as unique as Grygar’s, but also realizing that I usually just focus on the finished product, and that there was a journey before whatever I was standing in front of. It also reenforced how important the process is and how often I forget that. That maybe using a paintbrush won’t get you the right strokes you want, or the perfect dots or lines you wished for, so you go exploring other options! You go outside the box, you use wind-up birds or spend an hour creating a hole in a piece of paper. You take the journey and you make it worthwhile because when its over, its over. And yes, the product is important, it validates the existence of the process, but I know I can get caught up in the visions and grandeur of the final piece. I need to slow down! Milan’s work is simple, and beautiful, but the road he took was imaginative, exciting, and entirely his own. I need to bring these ideas to my own work, and start developing my own road.
