Hommage à Albrecht Dürer II

In 'Hommage à Albrecht Dürer II,' Kulhánek evokes Albrecht Dürer’s well-known print, 'The Fall of Man,' through a partial inclusion of Dürer’s Adam and Eve figures in the background. In contrast to Adam and Eve, who are both headless, Kulhánek renders the central male figure’s facial features – like his bulging eyes, which stare hauntingly past the viewer – in striking detail. Geometric lines and sketches are present on all three figures in the piece. The presence of these lines show Kulhánek’s technical skills in the creation of the bodies and emphasize the work’s exploration of the figuration of the human form. In addition to this bodily focus, the evocation of Dürer, specifically 'The Fall of Man,' both calls upon Dürer’s influential contribution to Northern European art – especially printmaking – and speaks to an apocalyptic mindset that Kulhánek and others may have possessed during this time of political oppression. [Emily Le, wall text in "Suppression, Subversion, and the Surreal: The Art of Czechoslovakian Resistance," USC Fisher Museum of Art, March 9 - May 10, 2019.]