Zdeněk Sýkora: Digital Painting

Through his early exploration of algorithmic processes, Czech painter Zdeněk Sýkora emerged as one of the most innovative artists of his generation. On 19 November, his landmark work Lines No. 109 will be offered at auction in Dorotheum.

Few artists have reimagined the relationship between art, science and technology as consistently as Zdeněk Sýkora (1920–2011). As early as the 1960s, he began using computers to devise pictorial compositions, becoming a pioneer of algorithmically generated art. What was visionary then now feels prescient in a world increasingly shaped by digital structures. Sýkora anticipated this shift and translated it into a visual language of striking modernity.

The work presented here, Lines No. 109 from 1993, is a striking example from his mature period. A vibrant network of lines in red, blue, green, black, and orange unfolds across a white ground. The lines overlap and intertwine, forming nodes and loops, following
trajectories that appear at once precisely calculated and full of unexpected turns. The viewer is drawn into a composition that simultaneously evokes urban maps or networks and natural formations such as roots, rivers, or veins. The distinctive allure of Sýkora’s line paintings lies in the dynamic interplay between rational construction and poetic openness. They are visual scores whose rhythm unfolds in the act of viewing. Each line functions like a distinct voice that integrates into the larger whole, while the eye is guided from one movement to the next. Sýkora’s works are part of major European collections, including the Centre Pompidou in Paris and the National Gallery in Prague.

With Lines No. 109, Dorotheum offers a work that holds a key position both art-historically and aesthetically – a highlight from the oeuvre of an artist who led painting into the digital age.