UNIQUE AND LIMITED: ART THAT GOES THE EXTRA MILE
16.05.2018
History didn’t happen in black and white and it shouldn’t be remembered that way. That is the mantra behind the Czech art company Unique and Limited, which combines the latest technology together with real photographs and painstaking research to create masterpieces.
More inspiring than paintings, more detailed than photographs: Unique & Limited’s spectacular artwork demonstrates a truly fresh and original way of bringing automotive stories back to life. Artist, visionary and founder, Jan Rambousek explains: “Nobody else is currently doing what we do to the same standards. We’re creating a new type of art.”
Unique and Limited doesn’t just focus on cars, though, and epic WWII battles are also portrayed. Episodes from history are every bit as rich in stories as our automotive past. But too often these stories are lost, under-appreciated, or simply never told because of the limited technology available at the time.
This is where Rambousek and his crew make the difference. “Our mission is to re-energize inspiring stories – bringing cars and characters back to life by using modern technology to create premium large-scale prints. We want both present and future generations to be able to experience history like never before,” the artist explains.
Every work is the result of a painstaking process that can easily take over five months to produce. To ensure that the scenes are recreated as authentically as possible, the team at Unique and Limited collects thousands of photos and, whenever possible, visits the actual locations and finds eye witnesses.
The artwork itself is a complex combination of photography and CGI. To enhance the realism of their works, Rambousek and his team prefer to shoot as much real content as possible, rather than generating 3D content. Building sets that are hard to differentiate from a Hollywood movie-set.
When it comes to the cars themselves, every dent, scratch and scuff is recreated. Rambousek says: “With the modern tendency to make classic race cars look as though they’ve just come off the production line, no-one can ever see them in true race condition – so we go to great lengths to depict them exactly as they would have looked during the race.“
And it’s not only the cars that receive this extremely detailed treatment: astonishingly, the same level of care also goes into the locations, characters and supporting props that are used in these famous scenes.
The sheer level of detail needs to be seen “in the flesh”, so you really should visit the Unique gallery in the city centre of Prague, where you will find an impressive collection of fine art prints and scale models of the cars. The ultimate works of reference. Maybe you’ll even go home with an artwork yourself.
©Unique & Limited