The (Un)known

Interactive tour around the key symbols of the artwork

First Revelation of Unknown Energy (1974) by Lubo KristekResearch Institute of Communication in Art

"First Revelation of Unknown Energy"

Kristek’s works in the 1970s were influenced by his long talks with Eberhard Trumler (one of the founders of ethology and Konrad Lorenz’s pupil) about the mechanisms of survival of a species and by his meetings with Salvador Dalí

Trumler gave Kristek part of his collection of skulls and thus evoked his passion for collecting bones and examining them. Such shapes have permeated Kristek’s painting and sculpting from that time.

In the painting First Revelation of Unknown Energy, lines repeating the shapes of the bones can be found in the formation of the sandy coastline. 

A turtle in the bottom right-hand corner conveys the theme of time that has passed and will pass; it expresses the certainty of eternity. 

A large part of the figure sitting in the armchair has already sublimated to another dimension.

At that very place, a flower appears in the spirit of perpetual intergrowth of forms, which is Kristek’s typical motive.  He tries to capture blooming of a new form simultaneously with the demise of an old one.

On the top of the bonelike formation, a huge boulder is balanced, representing a mass that could start moving at any moment.

A man looking on with a child has just caught sight of a revelation of unknown energy that is floating over the horizon.

The oil painting First Revelation of Unknown Energy is the forerunner of Lubo Kristek’s oeuvre, in which he brings surprising points of view and in which he deals with crisis points and sensitive spots of society as well as the human psyche. 

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