Ecce Homo #1

"Ecce Homo #1" is part of a series of prints created during the 1990s. All possessing the same title, the pieces in the series contrast images of the old and the young. The title, Ecce Homo, translates from Latin to “Behold the Man” and refers to the words of Pontius Pilate when he presents Jesus Christ to a crowd of Jews prior to his crucifixion. In choosing Ecce Homo as the title of this series, Kulhánek asks the viewer to behold the life cycle of man while articulating that, “at the beginning is the starting point for the search for life, at the end it is the dull abyss of the final infinity.” Through the contrasting images of the piece, the viewer is reminded that the innocence at the beginning of life will eventually culminate to the burden of knowledge at the end.

[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.]