The one that did not give up on his fate (exciting interview with Hans Eipell) You are painting beautiful paintings. How did you get into painting? My path to art and painting and other art disciplines was quite winding even though it was the best way for myself. At the beginning, there was a desire to find out who was my father and the only way was to learn an artistic language to be able to read in his sculptures. Then one of my best friends tragically passed away and I, at the age of fifteen, carved black Virgin Mary and created a memorial at the place of the tragedy. I have a feeling that there and at that time I got caught. Something like awakening that I have found my path. I have started with artistic farriery and continued carving and sculpturing. This was just one step to painting. When I first tried brush and canvas, I have found another dimension. Suddenly there were new and new possibilities how to deal with any thought, story or topic. I would like to mention my teacher, an academic painter Mr. Škopek , who gave us great freedom while creating. Then for some time a teacher and for me an educated theorist Petr Staněk, who used to come to my atelier at the beginning and kept criticizing and criticizing. He actually pointed me to move and taught me the right way how to process creation and how to utilize my own sense of perception. The rest was more or less lots of time of self educating, reading and trying – how and what to create. What is the most common theme of your pictures? I think that there is none – at least in my case – most common theme. I create a complex of experienced, seen, known and suspected. Often I move from symbolism over expressionism and cubism to the beginning of abstraction and informel. My work is based on suspended experiences and knowldge of the history of the place I came from – Sudeten and also very traditional Christian Themes. You are living in Sudeten land which is very inspiring by itself. What can you say about it? My land is forests, meadows, little town and a lot of beauty hidden in the hills. Tough and for effect quite reserved people. For me, it is a land of reconciliation , where I used to restore myself after many crisis. It is a place of church to church pilgrimage and searching ones roots and its relationships and the basis of continuity. It is the land where Josef Čapek and Mr. Kupka came from. I feel it was a great advantage because I knew I can make it too. Can you tell us more about being also a designer of didactic tools ? I got to didactic tools in the time when I was looking for a way to have a rest from work. Unfortunately I learned after some time, that I have not found the right employer. I had to stop the work untill I find a better use for my projects. There were many of your exhibitions, which one do you appreciate the most ? I guess that there is none I would appreciate more than the others. They are equal for me, each is like a little puzzle piece, a little step on my path to personal freedom. Your most favorite painter, poet, sculptor – eventually film director? There are many I like. Painters: Capek, El Greco and Grünewald. I could mention much more. Aristide Maillol is a sculptor I appreciate because I could feel the power of harmony through him. As of writers and poets Herman Hesse, Reynek and the beat generation. Which artistic movement is the closest for you? For my work and my progress was very important to know them all, although I would say that expressionism, cubism and informel are essential. You went through a psychological crisis. Do you want to tell us more? At the age of fifteen I first experienced problems defined as borderline personality disorder. Severe depression, anxiety and fear of people. It was very hard to keep studying at school at that time. I started to self study and found a great concern at studying art disciplines. Soon it became an integral part of me, the great fire I still carry inside. My illness actually became an advantage at knowledge for some time. Last three years I have ways to fight my illness and a way to get my life back. You are really very talented – who did you inherit your talent from? Is there a painter in your family ? My family, with exceptions, did not accept my passion. Art was my choice, following the work of my father, tragically deceased carver and sculptor Vladislav Drahorád. Even though I became an undesirable person, just like many other artists, I consider it to be the best decision of my life. People buy your paintings. It is a great success. Why do you think it is so? The fact that people buy my paintings and I still create new exhibitions is a posibility to continue the process of creation. It is a hope and challenge at the same time because I am not able to accept to live out of 3000 Czk disability pension. It became a fight for dignified life. What is your relationship to Facebook? Did it ever help you to sell some painting ? My relationship is neutral. It is a kind of tool to spread the awareness of my art creation. I can publicly, with some limitations, tell my not always comfortable believes and find „close souls“. What does your sculptures look like ? Are they figurative ? What material do you use? What is your inspiration… ? For me is sculpturing temporarily closed chapter due to my health problems and also because of my path to painting. My work was from the beginning cubist with elements of symbolism. Having the tools after my father, I actively processed wooden materials. You are quite famous. What experience was it for you to have an interview for radio or television? What were your interviews about? All my interviews for television, radio, newspapers or internet were about my work and my life with it. My whole life is about my work, that might be the reason I became so full of it. Your work seems very surrealist…do you agree with this opinion? What is your relationship to surrealism ? I do not quite agree with this opinion. Surrealism on its own did not interest me much, at least not as a theme of creation…there is more of expressionism in my blood with its strong explosiveness, emotional impulsiveness – the sense of expressing things without embellishment the way they really are and not controlling expression lines. You have a pseudonym – (Hans Eipell). Why ? Eipell is a corruption of a german name of my native town Upice, standing right at the border of Czech land and Sudeten land. It is a confrontational territory…a place where the czech-german relationsips are still corrupt…and my work is essentially my personal reconciliation of my relationship to the past of the landscape and country. Who do you feel to be the most – painter, sculptor or poet ? Or someone quite different? A man who expresses things using various methods….it is not important how do we express our internal perception, the important fact is that we do express it in any possible way. An interview with Hans Eipell conducted by Blanka Jakubčíková and translated by Jana Heltová
Posted on: Mon, 09 Sep 2013 18:56:19 +0000
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