Hlava 1913

Josef Capek made this ‘Head’ or ‘Hlava’, with oils and geometry, probably around the 1920s or 30s. I can imagine Capek at his easel, simplifying the planes of the face, reducing everything to essential forms. The red semicircle above the head hovers like a halo, while the bold black lines define the features with graphic precision. There’s this angular nose in red, slicing through the composition, and those blue planes suggesting depth and shadow. It makes me think about Picasso and Braque, but with a Czech twist. Capek was part of the avant-garde, so he's probably riffing on cubist ideas. Like, how can you show all sides of a person at once? It’s like he's building a face from architectural fragments, playing with our perception, challenging what it means to represent a person. And that’s what painting is, right? A way to keep asking questions, playing with possibilities, and keeping the conversation alive.