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July 7th, 2008
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Entrepreneurial interpretations

Art provocateurs Pode Bal mount a copycat conceptual show

By Tony Ozuna
For The Prague Post
February 7th, 2007 issue

COURTESY PHOTO
Among the artists lovingly ripped off, Joseph Beuys and his sled, below.
“Pode Bal Sells Out” should be the title of the current exhibition at Hunt Kastner Artworks. Renowned on the local Czech art scene as provocateurs, the until-recently anonymous artists in the collective have decided not only to unveil themselves, but to market themselves like rock stars. With their latest show, “Cover Art,” it’s clear that they want to be better-known. And they clearly want to sell some art.
Their idea is a cunning one: Pode Bal has created copies or interpretations of paintings by major modern and contemporary artists, including Gerhard Richter, Martin Kippenberger, Damien Hirst, Georg Baselitz, Gary Hume, Donald Baechler, Andy Warhol, Yves Klein and a famous multiple by Joseph Beuys.
These are famous artists on the international art scene; however, beyond the Czech art and intellectual community, and with the exception of Andy Warhol, they are not familiar names in the Czech Republic. A collection of Beuys’ seminal work was brought to Prague only last year, and the first retrospective of Richter’s paintings was shown in Brno just two years ago. As for the other artists copied by Pode Bal, they haven’t had more than a few works exhibited in this country, if any at all.
And so, by copying these “Western Masters,” Pode Bal is giving locals a chance to see works by major artists. The marquee outside of Hunt Kastner illuminates the names Warhol, Hirst, Richter and Kippenberger, as if the works of these artists are actually on exhibit. In a way, they are — as interpreted by Pode Bal. The choice of stylistically simple and unimpressive works by these artists, such as Baechler’s Lux n.2, Hirst’s LSD, Hume’s Cerith and Warhol’s older Camouflage painting, may have been because they were the easiest to reproduce.
A large color poster of the four members of Pode Bal (Hana Valihorová, Petr Motyka, Michal Šiml and Antonín Kopp) also hangs outside the gallery, with the artists looking as if they are ready to conquer the world (or at least the Czech art scene). So Pode Bal is still being brazen, not just by its selection of artists and at least some of these “esteemed” works, but also in how the collective is promoting the show.
Cover Art: Pode Bal Paints Western Masters

at Hunt Kastner Artworks
Ends March 16. Kamenická 22, Prague 7–Letná. Open Tues.–Fri. noon–5 p.m. or by appointment; call 233 376 259.

In front of each copied work in the gallery, there is a pedestal with a compact disc. The cover art for each varies, but they all look like album covers. Pode Bal Paints Kippenberger has a photo of the artists coolly posing for the camera. The Beuys cover shows only the three male artists, dressed and posed to resemble Beuys, with the German artist’s trademark signature above their heads, reading “Joseph Beuys by Pode Bal.”
The autographed CDs contain a video of the artists creating the piece — for example, standing in front of the canvas, taking turns painting a Warhol as if it were a paint-by-numbers exercise. The disc also contains a high-resolution digital image of the interpreted work that can be projected onto the wall. Finally, there is a full-color poster of the CD cover, just like rock bands use to promote their new releases. Thus Pode Bal’s interpretations are packaged in various forms, making them as accessible to the public as possible.
In the gallery, there is a video of the opening night of the exhibition, which included a live performance to create the Klein painting, done by painting a nude young woman in blue then having her drop her body onto the white canvas. Pode Bal’s copy (or reenactment) of Klein’s Anthropometry, a series of body prints made with a live model, is the most earnest interpretation. The copy of Beuys’ sled, with a store-bought package of Czech bacon instead of Beuys’ “Siberian fat,” is the most humorous and authentically Czech.
The entire collection of copycat art is for sale as “a ready-made contemporary art starter collection kit.” Or small-time collectors can purchase individual packages of their favorite artists. CDs and posters can also be purchased individually for even more affordable prices.
Will there be any local collectors for Pode Bal’s entrepreneurial art project? Are there any upwardly mobile Czechs just dying to own their own knockoff Richter, Hume or Hirst? With curators at the National Gallery’s Veletržní palác complaining in recent years that a lack of funds has prevented them from introducing such contemporary artists from the West, perhaps they should be among the first buyers lining up to purchase Pode Bal’s inventive new collection.

Tony Ozuna can be reached at features@praguepost.com


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