Roman Košťál - HIDDEN éditions | The Seven Silents #3
Dimensions: 15 × 15 cm
Medium: Sololit panel with canvas, charcoal
Year: 2024
Dimensions: 15 × 15 cm
Medium: Sololit panel with canvas, charcoal
Year: 2024
Dimensions: 15 × 15 cm
Medium: Sololit panel with canvas, charcoal
Year: 2024
This piece captures a still, silent ghost with blurred lips, a scene halted in time – we feel as if we are viewing a frame of an old film reel. The scarf around the neck symbolizes breathlessness, while the football goal post on the bottom left resembles female genitalia, to which the man stares intently. The muscular hand resonates with exalted masculinity, contrasting with the gentleness of his gaze. Above his head floats an abstract symbol in the shape of “G,” an occult Masonic symbol. The letter “G” refers to “gnosis” (“knowledge” in Greek), but also alludes to the sexual “G-spot,” referencing Arthur Schopenhauer’s philosophical concept of “Wille zum Leben.” The footballer tilts his ear toward the viewer, waiting for a saving piece of advice, an escape rope from the stalemate he falls into like Icarus. Though one of Roman’s smallest formats, it remains the most voluminous in terms of its underlying material in this collection, as it is also the artist’s visual experiment.
HIDDEN éditions | The Seven Silents
We are honored to present in HIDDEN Editions a unique and deeply personal series of paintings by Roman Košťál titled “The Seven Silents.” This collection was completed in the months following the death of his father, with each artwork exploring shadow plays of faded memories and the undercurrents of memory’s mycelial networks, touching upon themes of human loss and the search for universal meaning amidst painful life changes.
"This collection was completed in the months following the death of Roman’s father."
The title “The Seven Silents” refers to the silence left in the wake of his father’s passing, a silence of mourning itself. The number “7” alludes to the seven days in which God created the world, resting on the seventh, with death figuratively representing ultimate rest after life’s arduous journey. As Josef Čapek once reflected in his diaries, “To be dead is sweet, because more than sleep itself it is peace, solace, an end to pain and hardships; but this ultimate sweetness, the most that can be granted to a human being, the dead do not experience, do not feel.”
"The title “The Seven Silents” refers to the silence left in the wake of his father’s passing, a silence of mourning itself."
These paintings possess a transcendent, spiritual quality, reflecting the artist’s deep intuition and lyrical melancholy, which doesn’t dissolve into despair but rather celebrates the eternity of art in opposition to human life’s inevitable finitude. The black-and-white ghostly figures intermingle with scenes reminiscent of faded archival films, forming a dynamic collage of intense emotions and intimate nostalgia.
This series, created in the intimacy of the artist’s home rather than his studio at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, marks a departure from Roman’s previous work, making it both rare and surprising. It employs a new technique involving scalpel carving, where this aggressive material destruction paradoxically results in a sensitive and cohesive artistic expression. Compared to his earlier works, these pieces carry a metaphysical quality, with the glued canvas presenting a significantly softer drawing surface despite its rougher edges.
"This series, created in the intimacy of the artist’s home rather than his studio, marks a departure from Roman’s previous work, making it both rare and surprising."
