Mikuláš Medek *

(Prague 1926–1974)
Too Deep a Sleep V, 1966, signed, dated, titled and inscribed Příliš těžký spánek, M. Medek 1966 Hamburk on the reverse, oil, enamel on canvas, 163.5 x 106 cm, framed
We thank Adela Procházková for her kind assistance with cataloguing of this lot. The work will be listed in the upcoming Catalogue Raisonné of Mikuláš Medek issued by the Medek Family

Provenance:
Collection Christoph Wilhelmi, South Germany
Thence by descent to the present owner

Exhibited:
Galerie Rudolfinum, Prague, Mikuláš Medek, April 25 - August 18, 2002, exhib. cat. Prague 2002 with full page col.-ill.
National Gallery Prague, Mikuláš Medek - Naked in the thorns, September 11, 2020 - January 31, 2021

There are themes that run throughout the entire oeuvre of Mikuláš Medek, evolving over time, assuming different contexts, and acquiring new meanings. Among the most central of these is the depiction of a human figure resting its head on a table. This motif conveys a withdrawal from one’s surroundings, a turning inward, and a distancing from the external world. Too Deep a Sleep (1966) forms part of a group of works concerned with sleep, alcohol, and alcohol-induced sleep. Whereas his depictions of sleep in the 1950s were still subject to a pronounced figuration, by the late 1960s he had reduced their physical volume to an extreme minimum. In its further development, the head becomes a square, and with an increasingly pronounced geometrisation the sleeping figure approaches the threshold of its own abstraction.

Medek’s first biographer, Bohumir Mraz, interpreted these works in the context of the self-portrait: “The idea that runs so insistently through Medek’s work and finds expression in ever different ways is a profoundly Romantic one: ‘The only joy one can still experience in a state of exhaustion is the joy of sleep; the exhausted seek rest, outstretched limbs, silence – this is the happiness of a nihilistic religion and philosophy’ (Nietzsche)” (B. Mraz, Mikuláš Medek, Prague, 1970, pp. 27–28).

Mikuláš Medek is one of the most significant figures in twentieth-century Czech visual art. Undeterred by the restrictions imposed by the Communist government of the time, he persistently pursued creative freedom. His brother, Ivan Medek, recalled the constraints to which he was subjected as an artist: “My brother (...) ranked among the most outstanding and most interesting artists of the 1960s, despite the fact that he was not allowed to exhibit his works and his painting could only be seen in his flat. It was a big flat near the Vltava River in Prague. It was a very peculiar case - he was a popular artist but could only work at home. But our flat was always full of people from all over the world, who wanted to see his pictures.”

View of sleep with a dream, about a dream, of a dream
Depiction of sleep with a dream, about a dream, of a dream
Depiction of a view of sleep with a dream, about a dream, of a dream
Picture about the view of sleep with a dream, about a dream, of a dream
Painted (Painted) picture about the view of a sleep with a dream, about a dream, of a dream
The Last Sleep of Great Alcohol
(Mikuláš Medek, Notes, 1966, quoted after exhib cat National Gallery Prague, Mikuláš Medek - Naked in the Thorns, 2020)