Jiri Straka, Martin Eder, Jonathan Meese, Josef Bolf. A group exhibition of four painters born around 1970, who in their creations accent exaggeration, irony and a poignant sense of work with kitsch which curiously hides personal depravity, as well as the dark depths of fear from the unknown.
curator: Petr Nedoma
A group exhibition of four painters born around 1970, who in their creations accent exaggeration, irony and a poignant sense of work with kitsch which curiously hides personal depravity, as well as the dark depths of fear from the unknown. Each of the artists uses completely different creative tools which significantly underline the characteristics of the works. Straka’s classic Chinese ink painting in its uncommon, monumental standard is in sharp contrast to the ironic themes of pure European provenience. The themes of the most depressed kitsch performed as if through the old masters’ chiaroscuro painting in the academic style by Martin Eder are an undisguised playing with the dejected appetite of wide social ranks.
Conversely, in his sculptures, Jonathan Meese brilliantly opens the rich scale of the sculptural drama with reference to European sculptures over hundreds of years. Perhaps Josef Bolf delves the deepest in his technically very demanding paintings which thematically plunge into the obscure layers of unconsciousness and infantile remembrance. What all of the artists have in common is a firm basis of deeply understood and mainly experienced history of European culture and the artistic legacy with which they work with absolute certain knowledge of even the most minute details which they draw into their refined dramas, therefore creating a new meaning.
Catalogue
The catalogue in Czech and English language brings essays of the curator, Petr Nedoma, on single artists with coloured renderings of all exhibited artworks. Published by Galerie Rudolfinum, Praha 2009.
Image: Martin Eder, Die Vorstellung Fantasy, 2008, oil on canvas 200 x 150 cm
Courtesy Galerie EIGEN + ART Leipzig / Berlin
Main partner
UNICredit Bank, Czech Republic
Media partners
art&antiques, Čro 3 – Vltava, Pragueout.cz, Grand Princ, Radio1, A2 kulturní čtrnáctideník
Special thanks to
friendlyway
Galerie Rudolfinum
T +420/227 059 205 / public relations – Zuzana Kosařová
T +420/227 059 349 / public relations – Klára Derzsiová
T +420/227 059 346 / accompanying and educational programme – Marian Pliska
Galerie Rudolfinum
Alsovo Nabrezi, 12 - Prague
Open
Tuesday-Wednesday/Friday-Sunday
from 10 am to 6 pm
Thursday / from 10 am to 8 pm
Barrier-free access to the building
Admission
Regular admission Undercurrent 120 CZK
Regular admission Damien Hirst 80 CZK
Regular admission both exhibitions 150 CZK