Léopold Plotek

Leopold Plotek, combines abstraction and figuration in large format paintings which take as their starting point his memories, his experience of architecture, objects and art, as well as his readings in art, history, and poetry of all periods. His works of the late 1970s were influenced by Adrian Stokes writings, especially Stones of Rimimi (1934), and in the 1980s by object relations theory in general. His references are often elliptically treated however, as he develops ways of painting them according to his own recipe which varies, picture to picture. In this singular pictorial dynamic, each painting is basically a conception on its own, though a series of sorts can exist. As a result, certain of Plotek’s paintings prefigure the practice of many contemporary abstract painters and can be viewed, like them, as extending the range of abstraction.