The energy of crystals and the power of colour in the original artworks of Zuzana Hradilová, between Expressionism and Material Informalism

The creative path of some artists does not allow them to remain within a single expressive language, because the aptitude for versatility, for the need to allow different voices to emerge, albeit contiguous and similar, becomes predominant to the point of not being able to remain unheard; hence this type of artists develops their production along different lines, of which the basic principle remains unchanged, the essential concept from which they cannot prescind.

The artist I am going to tell you about today succeeds in bringing together her two passions, that for painting and that for stones with their incredible energies, giving life to works in which the concreteness of the crystals is harmonised with the strength of the colours to involve the observer in all the pleasantness of letting himself go to the positive sensations they generate.

The end of the 19th century was a veritable succession of innovations that laid the foundations for the experiments and extremes that characterised the 20th century; many of these anticipations were overturned and completely modified by the pressing need to distance themselves from the artistic tradition that had until then dominated the international scene, but certain guidelines were an important starting point for later research.

It was precisely at the end of the 19th century that was born a movement in England whose main aim was to oppose the rapid industrialisation that the nation was undergoing and therefore set itself the goal of revaluing all craft sectors by linking them inextricably with art; Arts & Crafts, this was the name of the current, mixed the manual skills of craftsmen with the more highly creative skills of artists, allowing the two approaches to mingle, giving life to objects of art, introducing decoration and material into unique pieces that thus took on a completely different value compared to simple low-cost objects.

From that English experience then developed multiple interpretative strands that took on a different name according to the country of origin of the artists: Stile Liberty in Italy, Art Nouveau in France, Modernism in Spain, Secession in Austria. All with the common denominator of the contamination between previously separate techniques and fields, such as decoration, jewellery, glassware, furniture, architecture.

It was precisely from those conceptual innovations, from that unleashed possibility of interacting between various sectors and with unprecedented materials, that later developed movements such as Dadaism, the Nouveau Réalisme, where fragments of glass, ceramics and paper collages became directly part of works or transformed works into decorative and furnishing elements, as in the case of Niki de Saint Phalle; and then came the complete fusion of pure expressiveness devoid of any recognisable form, and matter to be moulded and fused with colour, which characterised the Informal Material movement in which everything that could be used in everyday life had the possibility of becoming a complement and being introduced into a work of art.

In the second half of the 20th century and in contemporary art, all those experiments have evolved, new materials have been introduced as well as new styles have embraced the interaction between colour and objects included in the artistic composition, characterised by the full freedom of expression that from Abstract Expressionism onwards has given artists the opportunity to break out of the pre-existing mould without the fear of being excluded or marginalised from the art world.

The Slovakian Zuzana Hradilová, an artist by inclination since she was a child, later developed a passion for crystals and precious stones, deciding to start creating jewellery in a completely self-taught manner; the fascination and energy emanating from stones became her great passion, which she combines with the production of paintings, until her creativity prompts her to try a new path, one in which she can allow the stones to interact with her paintings, which are thus transformed into material works from which the observer can allow himself to be enveloped and conquered in turn by the magic of the energetic presence of the stones.

Zuzana Hradilová’s painting style is multifaceted because her creativity cannot remain within an identifying scheme that would not allow her to express on the basis of the sensation of the moment, and so she moves from the Art Deco of certain portraits to Expressionism, which is sometimes enriched with matter while others are developed and manifested only through colour, and in many artworks she moves towards an Informal in which the image gives way completely to the concept, to sensation.

In any case, what emerges from Hradilová’s paintings is the absolute freedom that characterises her approach without rules but rather structured only by the need to respond to and indulge her creative instinct, not only in the expressive language but also in the media she uses to create her works, from paper to glass to canvas, everything is functional to her emotion of the moment.

In the artwork Dandelion, the artist describes the dandelion with the apparent levity emerging from the light and impalpable tones with which she characterises it, choosing an equally delicate medium, paper, but then reinvigorates it and emphasises its symbolic meaning of the ability to survive challenges and difficulties by giving it consistency with the introduction of crystals, which not only embellish its appearance but also serve as the substance through which she enhances the qualities of the delicate flower.

The dark background creates contrast between the main image and that sense of the unknowable that often characterises the obstacles of existence, which, however, cannot help but be tackled, with courage, loyalty, trust and confidence in one’s own strength, even where one might think not to succeed because too small compared to the size of those obstacles. The crystals therefore constitute the essence, a metaphor for that resilience which allows the individual to strive towards improvement, evolution and greater inner well-being.

On the other hand, in the decidedly Informal canvas Rainbow, Zuzana Hradilová chooses shades of orange, almost as if she wanted to subvert the sense of the rainbow that she gives to the title, because in the end what must prevail for her is energy, optimism, the strength that this particular atmospheric phenomenon is able to arouse; here she inserts the blue aventurine, a blue coloured stone with which she decorates the lower part of the work, and which is linked to inner strength allowing emotional and spiritual maturation.

Thus, the artist combines two meanings, that of colour and that of stone, to give the viewer her point of view of what she sees as the beauty of the rainbow.

In Sunset, on the other hand, she moves towards Expressionism and recounts the sunset over the sea through her feelings, tuning the tones to the sensations she felt at the moment she stood in front of that beautiful landscape even at the cost of forgetting the chromatic reality because what counts is to immortalise everything that the inner self needs to communicate. Also in this painting, whose medium is canvas, Hradilová inserts her beloved stones, in the specific case amethysts which are associated with the soul, inner strength and calmness that is also released through contemplation of the slow setting of the sun on the sea.

When, on the other hand, she chooses to use only colours, Zuzana Hradilová recounts the feminine world, its intensity emphasised with strong, intense, full tones, as opposed to the transparency of the bodies narrated, as if the latter were immaterial because in some way this is exactly how women should position themselves to leave more space for interiority, putting form in the background to make room for substance, without fear of being discovered but rather boldly showing their truest essence.

But Zuzana Hradilová is also a creator of jewellery, she has designed her own collection in which precious stones and crystals are the absolute protagonists, with their positivity, with the energetic power they can release and emanate in those who know how to receive those vibrations.

Zuzana Hradilová actively participates in many group and solo exhibitions in Slovakia and abroad, receiving constant acclaim for the originality and positive message of her artworks.