(Flower in palm)

 

Helena Konstantinova

  1946 - PRESENT (biography)

c. 1990  

lithograph 

5 5/16 x 4 1/8" image size 

pencil, lower right 

not stated 

pencil annotated "art.tist" in lower left 

 

cream wove 

 

 

22449 

$300.00 

Much of the professional career of Helena Konstantinova sprang from her years as an illustrator in Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic). At the time, the work of artists, writers, and musicians was undergoing an intense post-war transition, and many artists were caught in the tangle of strict Stalinist art historians and the sway of contemporary art movements. The government often declined grants to artists who did not conform to its preferred identity; as such, many artists who didn't want to move out of the country in order to pursue art had to find particlaur ways to convey self expression.

For Konstantinova, this meant delving into book illustration, where her skills as a printmaker translated the works of poets and writers in subtle, elegant lithographs and etchings. This greatly informed her style, and she continues to work from her adopted home of Canada.

Here, an open palm cradles the glowing petals of a daisy, from whose form stretches the shadowed arms of vines. Konstantinova employs a speckled, nearly pointillist texturization to achieve the soft transition of light to dark.