Ivan Pinkava makes portraits that have a strange tension between attraction and repulsion. He chooses models that are androgynous and awkward, yet stately and mythic, and then heightens this strangeness with a subtle layer of paint and oil. His print quality is beautiful and so specific that the hairs on the face or the texture of the skin become a big part of the content of the picture, because they attest to the condition of this creature, which is what Pinkava is concerned with. "They are beings from the end of the centuryÖbeings of the universe: sexless, disowned and powerfully expressive." Ivan Pinkava "They bear the traces of timeless conflict: scarred, heavy-lidded, emotionally frayed. They are hardened yet also vulnerable and tender." David Chandler, London 1993 Pinkava was previously working on a group of pictures of people with their eyes closed who were personifications of the works of different authors. This was also an effective series-a model whose eyes are closed is a source of great curiosity because they are unreadable and private-what are they thinking? It reminds us that photography by nature deals only with the exterior of things-if we use the exterior to make assumptions about the interior, it is our interpretation.
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