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Painting the new reality

Czech artists portray their society's rapid transformation
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By Tony Ozuna
For The Prague Post
January 9th, 2008 issue

COURTESY PHOTO
František Matoušek gives his work a distinctive look by painting on denim fabric.
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Resetting — Different Ways of Reality

at Municipal Library Ends March 23. Mariánské nám. 1, Prague 1–Old Town. Open Tues.–Sun. 10 a.m.–6 p.m.

Czech painting is still struggling for greater recognition beyond its borders, but even at home it is a tough trade. Yet painters persist, and the current exhibition at Prague City Gallery’s Municipal Library space focuses on contemporary practitioners portraying the world as they see it on canvas.
There are 26 artists in this show, divided into two groups. The majority were born in the 1970s, but four painters are a bit older than the rest: KW (1959), Petr Pastrňák (1962), Jiří Petrbok (1962) and Petr Písařík (1968). The works of the older artists do not look dated or out of place, and are integrated with the others.
Key to curator Petr Vaňous’ concept of “Resetting” is that the selected artists use painting as an alternative form of seeing the world objectively, in some cases offering an alternative to documentary photography.
At the beginning of the show there is a long landscape, dark and abstract with rough glimmers of gold, titled Aral at Night (2005) by Jakub Špaňhel (born in 1976). Beside this crude depiction of a gas station, Špaňhel’s Reichstag (2005) barely reveals the German parliament amid a haze of brighter gold.
Nearby, Pastrňák has an abstract forest, icy and deteriorating, along with mystical, almost glowing portraits of four fellow painters (Josef Bolf, Petr Lysáček, Milan Perič and Pavel Humhal). KW’s Enjoy Your Experience (2006) shows a racecar headed for a crash. The canvas is covered with lined Plexiglas, giving it a blurred feeling of motion. Another fast car by KW, painted bright yellow, dominates the end of the room.
Also in the first room is Písařík’s Capital M (2007), a mixed-media painting that resembles a brick wall of a run-down building, and an untitled 2006 work by Petrbok showing a young hipster pushing a baby carriage filled with clouds, while a rocket takes off in the distance and the hipster’s head seems to explode.
In the next room, a similar playful violence dominates the atmosphere, particularly with Hošek’s four works in all their comic-book gore and glory. For a spare and subtle counterpart to Hošek’s paintings, there’s one in the corner of the room by Ladislava Gažiová with just a couple roses, a puddle of mud and weeds sprayed on canvas.
The next room contains three of Josef Bolf’s disturbing childhood visions or memories of surrealistic horror, in his trademark pink and black. And there are larger weird visions painted by Petrbok. The world as envisioned by Petrbok is like Kippenburger meets Rauch — a punk-edged, surreal take on life’s banality. Also in this room, Veronika Holcová (1973) has small landscapes with one standout: Late Afternoon, a multilayered sandwich of sunset colors.
In a row of smaller rooms, Lubomír Typlt (1975) has paintings of grotesque, grinning little green fiends; Aleš Hudeček (1973) paints classical objects of fine art, such as antique vases, with modern, perverted imagery; and Gažiová (1981) has one work abounding with spirits and a woman hanging from a tree, and two smaller canvases of cartoonish Romany figures, some looking like Beatniks, others just exhausted.
In the second section of the show, Daniel Pitín (1977) has cinematic architectural scenes, while Jaromír Novotný (1974) is also showing paintings of building exteriors, though grimier. His Exit (2007) is a large door or window into a gray abyss, and his smaller Resetting (2001) is an entrance to a modern building, lifeless and barren in cold, mostly gray concrete.
In works like these, the “post-revolutionary” world looks no less gray than it did under totalitarianism, even though most things are newer. Zbyněk Sedlecký (1976) paints the back view of a large truck moving down a highway. The painting is dominated by the gray highway and a dirty-white sky, a typical view of this country for many drivers.
Across from these paintings, Petr Malina (1976) is showing some humorous self-portraits beside big names in modern art: The young artist stands with his camera in front of a wall with “Edward Hopper” written on it. And there is another version with the name “Neo Rauch.”
KW has more works in the second section, including two figures (a clothed man and a mostly nude and headless woman), both done on plywood, and A Spell of a Drug, which shows a 1970s Mercury Cougar (a true American work of art, and certainly not a domestic inspiration).
In the second row of small rooms, Pavel Šmíd (1964) portrays the weary corporate world and modern cosmetics; Anna Neborová (1968) paints a life faded to gray; František Matoušek (1967) paints the world on denim, sometimes shredded for full effect; and “Q” has a clincher: Hold On, I’m Coming (2006), a painting of a broken-down car without a front tire, with a real tire and an old door railing on the floor near the canvas. It is the end of the road for this one.
As a group, these works all reflect how Czech scenery and society have rapidly changed since the fall of communism. It is a somber view — objectively speaking.

Tony Ozuna can be reached at features@praguepost.com


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