Jiří Straka

Zartes Grauen

Introduction by Petr Nedoma

Director at the Galerie Rudolfinum, Prague  

It is combination of the traditional and masterly accomplished technique of Chinese ink painting and the vehemence and hardness of his motifs that strike and unsettle the unprepared viewer.  

At the beginning of September – two months before a major solo exhibition of the painter JIŘÍ STRAKA starts at the Today Art Museum in Beijing – the Galerie arteversum will show a representative selection of large-format ink paintings of the Czech-born artist for the first time in Germany. The exhibition „JIŘÍ STRAKA – Gentle Dread“, taking place in Düsseldorf, provides therefore an exclusive foretaste of the exhibition curated by Wu Hongliang - director of the Qi Baishi Museum and the Art Institute Beijing - and starting on the 15th of November 2010 in China.  

The artist JIŘÍ STRAKA, born in Prague, grown up there and living today with all its consequences in China, connects two worlds in his art: the traditional technique of ink painting which he studied at the Beijing Fine Art Academy and masters as no other European. However the facet which distinguishes him from his Asian colleagues is his unique and uncompromising subject. This combination of centuries-old, masterly accomplished ink technique and the vehemence and hardness of his image motif attract the attention of the Chinese art scene, let him participate in established biennials and display at important exhibitions. 

JIŘÍ STRAKA views himself in the tradition of his inspiring example Lang Shining. The Italian-born – baptized as Guiseppe Castiglione – immigrated in the year 1715 to China. He learned the Chinese painting technique there, only to enter the service of the Chinese emperor. His unique Chinese-European diction to combine Asian technique with naturalistic fidelity of European painting brought him soon into prominence. His works are appreciated in Asia up to today and are scarcely represented in institutions of the Western world: few museums in the United Stated, for example the MoMA, own a number of works of the crossover artist.  

JIŘÍ STRAKA shows also connections to Julius Bissier, who – as his “discoverer” Werner Schmalenbach writes – dedicates himself to the mental and artistic importance of ink and the spirituality and concentration on the essential, the essence of things, in his work.   Under the title „Gentle Dread“ – which refers to the subtle and poetic ambivalence that radiates from any work of the artist – the Galerie arteversum will show a selection of large-format ink paintings, which will reflect the whole range of JIŘÍ STRAKA’s artistic pursuit. The contentual and immanent development of the artist can be reconstructed from works with floral motifs, still lifes, to his latest paintings.  

JIŘÍ STRAKA will furthermore create a Live-Ink-Painting in the rooms of the gallery during the Opening-Event of the exhibition.