Prague stuckists

In 2004 I spent a couple of months in London. I was watching the art scene in London and got to know about Stuckism. As I come from the Czech republic, I was excited by the idea of an international art movement against the rise of conceptual art. Fine art in the Czech republic has very strong traditon of modernism. The Czech republic is a bulwark of anti-classic art movements of the 20th century. In the beginning of the 21st century art informel is still seen as the top of the development of modern art. Czech art is wide open to concept, intermedia, environment, minimalism and similar art styles. On the contrary painting was considered to be matter of the past. In the 90´s it was nearly impossible to organize an exhibition of contemporary painting. The public almost believed there were no young painters in the Czech republic.

Having returned from London, I got an idea to found a group of young painters which would represent all the main styles of painting in the Czech republic. It should not be a group composed of my favourite painters only. As an historian of art concerned with 19th century painting, I am aware of my particular taste, so I was beware not to include too many representatives of one style of painting to the group. It was very important to keep balance among various styles of painting. As the Czech republic was composed from two countries, Bohemia and Moravia, it was important to keep balance between painters from Bohemia and Moravia too. Artists from both capitals Prague (Bohemia) and Brno (Moravia) should join the group.

There was the question of what were main styles of Czech contemporary painting? One cannot omit the tradition of magical symbolism. With its roots in the end of the 19th century, magical symbolism formed a continuous non-mainstream line of Czech painting in the 20th century besides the main stream of modernism. Still in the beginning of the 21st century it adopts new forms and shapes an important part of contemporary painting. The most outstanding representative of magical symbolism among young Czech painters is undoubtedly Jaroslav Valečka.

An important stream of contemporary painting, not only in the Czech republic, is neo-expresionism. It is not easy to decide which of a number of young painters can represent neo-expresionism in the best way. Finally I decided to invite to the Prague stuckists Martin Salajka. Salajka is the youngest member of the Prague stuckists and still a student of Prague academy. Although it is very hard to predict his future progress, Salajka is a gifted painter and the winner of Artkontakt 2004 (competition of students of academies of fine art in the Czech republic).

Contrary to neo-expressionsm, neo-classicism holds very weak positions in the Czech republic. When I speak of neo-classicism, I mean painting which adapts a visual perception typical of the 19th century to contemporary ways of painting. Although in foreign countries it is a legitimate style of contemporary painting (David Ligare...), Czech art critics consider it inadmissible. This point of view stems from the strong tradition of modernism in the Czech republic. In spite of that, there is an outstanding representative of neoclassicism in Prague. His name is Filip Kudrnáč.

The cold style of painting typical of modern techocratic society is represented by Kateřina Pažoutová. Her paintings of shop windows are very strong in image of an dehumanised world of modelling.

A number of Czech painters focus on nostalgic tones of realism. Lukáš Orlita is one of the most remarkable of them. Besides his realistic works, he produces also excellent abstract paintings.

Speaking about painting one should not forget landscape painting. It seems there is not a lot of space for pure landscape painting in contemporary art in general. In spite of that it still forms an important part of contemporary painting. Having considered who can be marked as the most interesting young Czech landscape painter, I decided for Jan Spěváček. His paintings of water surfaces especially are very strong in colour, full of symbolism and impressionism in the same time. Besides that, Spěváček is a mature figurative painter.

As the Stuckism is an art movement for photographers too, I include myself in the Prague Stuckists, not only as an art historian but also as a photographer. It has been several years since my first solo exhibition was reviewed in the daily news and on TV. It could be interesting to gain other young photographers fot the group. However I do not consider the Prague Stuckist should provide a cross-section of contemporary Czech photography at the present.

Not all painters whom I wanted to become members of the Prague stuckists agreed with the idea. Originally I bargained for 3 - 4 other painters. I hope they become members later. However for this reason the Prague Stuckists lacked representatives of two important styles of contemporary Czech young painting at the time of foundation. There is no representative of the mainstream (somebody like Alexander Katz in a world context). I also lacked a painter from a rather large and interesting group of artists who produce naturalist paintings made with the technique of old masters. The omission of the latter one was retrieved in 2010 when Markéta Urbanová became a member of the Prague Stuckists. Her art work varies a lot in terms of painting styles, from bold hyperrealistic self-portraits, over dark images of female emotionality to fresh landscapes.

The Prague Stuckists were further enhanced by Jaromír Švejdík aka Jaromír 99. A frequent guest on the Czech indie charts, frontman of legendary bands Priessnitz a Umakart was not admitted to the group because of his musical abilities but to enhance style variety of the Prague Stuckists. The art works of the members lacked drawing and comics. Drawings of Jaromír 99 are focused on strong colour contrast of black and white. The main feature of the drawings is an exceptionally suggestive atmosphere. The artist truthfully describes genius loci of the Moravian Sudetenland.

Robert Janás