Images

Individual periods of creation as an image of a spiritual journey

This chronological division of the periods, reflects, among other things, the scattered observations and glosses in the reviews of art critics and curators. It clearly shows the compactness of the individual phases of creation and the perfect logic in their developmental connection, as well as the close connection with the painter’s life path. The “terminology” used is therefore not accidental, as it uses the traditional symbolism of spiritual paths, valid since antiquity. Moreover, the dividing years take into account the turning points in the artist’s life (e.g. Stanislava’s departure in 1983 ), although they may not correspond exactly to the timing of the individual groups of paintings.

… 1942 craft at all levels (Rembradt period)
1st period 1942-1962
– 1942-1950 preparatory-period (still-lifes, portraits, landscapes)
– 1950-1962 experimenting with styles, processes, techniques
2nd period 1962-1980 Phase I of the Clause
– 1962-1970 (morphing elements)
– 1970-1983 (purification_of_elements)
3rd period 1983-1990 Phase II of the cloister “tinging” with paint (“votization”)
4th period 1990-1997 all-pervading white (glow of the pneuma)

Notes on each period:

… 1942 – The level of mastery of the craft is perhaps best characterized by the “rembradt-like” self-portrait painted (at age 17 !!).

1. 1942-1962 – Gradually painted in different styles.
– 1a. Preparatory period: Influences of Impressionism, Expressionism and Cubism are evident.
– 1b. Late 1940s and 1950s: Magical realism and surrealism, large-scale neoclassical canvases and cubist portraits.

2. 1962-1980 – Inner, profound transformation (in “silence” and “darkness”). The painter closes himself in his inner world, later almost never leaving the house. Yet his paintings remain “a kind of reportage on this world” [Vl.Franz].

– 2a. 1962-1970 – They look like abstractions, but they are morphoses of elements in their multiplicity. This includes gestural painting, expressionism, Bellocvetov is inspired by Pollock’s dripping technique, to which he adds his own figurative content – it’s also a nice example, of how the painter at this stage is already getting “beyond form” – Woman with Child II.

– 2b. 1970-1983 Cleaning up those morphed elements — contrasted, simplified and “objectified”. In effect, it is a postmodern synthesis of existing stylistic forms, which he further develops.

3. 1983-1990 In this second phase of purposeful clairvoyance, the connection with the spiritual world deepens. The paintings still have some of the “multiplicity” of the previous period, but the contrast, contours and space are created more by the surface of colour.
To the note in the introduction: The passing of Stanislava is not the originator of the changes, but their “guide” and an important player.

4. 1990-1997 All-pervading white (the glow of the pneuma). “Nomen-Omen” Bělo-cvět-ov (ie White-color) is the materialization of the life and artistic peak of his spiritual journey. This “shining pneuma” is not just a mere poetic turn of phrase, a similar effect of radiating is known in some paintings of “Madonnas of the East” (icons) and Madonnas of the Old Masters in general (which was first, and I think only, recognized in Belocvetov by art historian Prof. Ivo Kořán see).