František Muzika (1900-1974)

THREE TREES WITH A WINDOW

1953
Tempera on paper, 45x35 cm. Mounted, framed and glazed. Marked lower right in color "F. M. 53", handwritten note on the technique on the reverse below the adjustment. This work is an outstanding example of a fundamental development in F.M.`s work in the early fifties. Since the end of the 1940s, dreamlike illusions have been in the work of F.M. replaced by fantastic plant formations, which subsequently pass into the creation of the fifties. The background is´t so a deep and perspective realized space, but a shallow "empty" space with a low or disappearing horizont line. The creation closely coincides with the new orientation of European art, post-war art, with lyrical abstraction with its structures reminiscent of the world of the natural microcosm. The pictorial structure is divided into the clearly defined contours of the crown of a tree, a symbol of life, growth, the axis of the world and periodic renewal, while the internal structure represents the symbolism of the transformation of hidden reality. A mysterious corner full of gentle being illuminated by the inner light of the window, the source and the place behind which is hidden the world of the soul itself, invisible to people. The light background, evoking the feeling of the golden background of the old Italian masters, is the light that gives the tree life, strength, but also contours it, contrasting the external and internal arrangement of the "Tree". The tree, which is not alone, is not lonely, but creates a mystical unity of three elements, a Trinity, a community. Published in: Tetiva, Koubská; František Muzika; Praha 2012, p. 195