Art review: Jan Hísek: Night Rider at Galerie Rudolfinum

Recognized as an accomplished graphic artist and the illustrator of many books, Jan Hísek became known to the public at the beginning of the 1990s as one of the most promising and idiosyncratic graphic artists of the emerging generation. It was only years later that painting became a major part of his output. He is currently presenting a cross-section of more than 30 paintings from the past seven years in the Small Gallery of the Rudolfinum.

Born in 1965, Hísek is a graduate of the Studio of Book Culture and Lettering at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design (VŠUP) in Prague. He has illustrated a range of publications, from Thomas Mann, Gustav Meyrink and Vítězslav Nezval to J.R.R. Tolkien and Khalil Gibran's famous work The Prophet.

In 1999, Hísek was nominated for the Jindřich Chalupecký Award for artists under 35, lauded for his outstanding graphic abilities and works that stood outside the mainstream of contemporary art but at the same time linked to the visionary currents in Czech 20th-century art. In addition to exhibiting throughout the Czech Republic, his work has been shown in London, Rome, Paris, Seattle and New York.

Hísek's work has less in common with most Czech artists of his own generation than with the Surrealists or visionary artists such as Josef Váchal, Alén Diviš or William Blake, who tried to transcend the physical world and tap into spiritual awareness.

Hísek's father worked as an illustrator, drawing plants and animals for scientific publications. The younger Hísek's work springs from this legacy, using precise and technically accomplished draftsmanship in works derived from, yet not adhering strictly to, structures found in nature.

Most of his paintings could be considered dreamscapes or inscapes. He uses the natural world as a springboard to dive deep into the realms of dreams, myths and supernatural beings.

In his paintings, Hísek disposes of illusive space, presenting a two-dimensional surface with no discernible horizon and often lacking any real center, with visual weight being distributed to elements spread across the canvas. On first impression, his all-over painting style may strike the viewer as almost decorative, but as the eye moves around the canvas, taking in its myriad layers, dimensions and minute forms, one sees what might initially be considered ornamentation is rife with symbolism and spiritual undercurrents.

Each painting is its own microcosm. Hísek's paintings teem with organisms that mostly portray no identifiable plant or animal but freely combine attributes of creatures of the sea, earth and air. Other organisms stem purely from the artist's imagination. Human figures, heads and faces appear frequently, often morphing into floral or animal forms and vice versa. Mask-like faces float untethered, and ghostly apparitions are surrounded by petals, like daisies or grinning sunflowers.

The first room at the exhibition contains several black-and-white paintings on canvas that could be called "drawn paintings." Hísek's training in graphic art is strongly evident in the myriad tiny details that are everywhere on the canvases. Elsewhere he overlays large passages of precise drawing on paintings saturated with color and radiant with light.

In the second room, a few larger paintings are joined by a row of 11 small-scale canvases installed in one corner. The small paintings are generally executed in more intense hues and with simpler forms than the larger canvases, showing a freer, at times almost gestural, hand. It is paradoxical that Hísek has taken a more improvisational, intuitive approach in the small-scale works and has used more exacting control usually associated with printmaking techniques in the large-format paintings.

The third room continues with more imaginary realms, whether on land, undersea or in the sky, sometimes ambiguously blending them. These self-contained worlds abound with fantastical beings and plant life, the smaller creatures and plants simultaneously converging toward and at the same time streaming away from the larger entities that anchor the compositions, creating a highly dynamic space that seems to breathe with movement and vitality.

Groups of similar objects, such as a row of hummingbirds, a line of windswept trees, curling plant tendrils, twisted strands like an RNA helix, animate the compositions with undulating rhythm, while other pattern-covered areas, such as a passage of branching algae or fern leaves, act more as ballast for the life forms swirling around them.

Little touches of humor, such as lines of winged vehicles or a multitude of cartoonish heads atop stick-figure bodies, are almost imperceptible when taking in the macro view of a painting. Viewers will be rewarded by moving in for a close-up view and may see the pieces in a whole new way once they step back again.

The paintings in "Night Rider" evoke the mystery of existence by creating a synthesis among the things that float in and out of the artist's mind in waking and unconscious states, allowing the dream world to bubble up to the surface of consciousness, where it is transformed into beautiful works of art.

Mimi Fronczak Rogers can be reached at
Features@praguepost.com