AJG - Aleš South Bohemian Gallery

Richard Konvička
paintings / drawings
 

2nd September – 17th October 2010
Wortner House of the Aleš South Bohemian Gallery, U Černé věže 22, České Budějovice



Richard Konvička was born on 30th April 1957 in Prague. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, in the studio of Prof. Jan Smetana (1977 – 1983). The development of Konvička’s work was considerably influenced by his stay in the USA (1990). Meeting such a different world brought to life the epic character of his older work. The picture area becomes filled with recorded stories, evoking present-day civilization. The artist has held almost fifty solo exhibitions, and his paintings and drawings are included in important shows of contemporary art, both at national and European levels. His works can be found in almost all state galleries in the Czech Republic and in private collections in this country and abroad.



    The exhibition of paintings and drawings by the academic painter Richard Konvička presents his work over the last four years (2007 – 2010). It is a compact convolute that all peripetia of Richard Konvička’s work so far are projected on. The fundamental part consists of paintings from the free cycle The Venetian Walker (and related cycles), with an addition of other exhibits, freely linked to the artist’s preceding work (concerning both the artistic aspect and the choice of themes). Some themes are transformed in innovated versions, some have disappeared and some have come into being. The process that is going on here leads to a new organisation of the area and to the “innovation” of the artistic tactic in the game of colours and forms.
    This is not the first time that Richard Konvička cooperates with the Aleš South Bohemian Gallery. In 1985, he held his first solo exhibition, which was realised by this institution at the Little Stage of the Trade Union House of Culture in České Budějovice. On display were 19 large-format drawings. The ambience of Wortner House isn’t unknown to the artist either. It was here that fourteen years ago, in 1996, he presented his works from the period 1900 – 1996. Since that time, his work has once again progressed further in terms of quality. The surface of Konvička’s canvases shows a succession of pictorial events. Chromatic relationships, the dynamic development of the sign, sober texture of the coloured matter, sagging of colour and haptic and material interferences with the painting basically constitute the essence of the composition of the painting, often dealt with on the basis of the duality of horizontal (quiet) and vertical (motion) lines. The painter’s gesture and visual sign incorporated into his unmistakable drawing style and the colourful vitality evoke a coherently emotional and intellectual component. His world of paintings and drawings offers no fundamental alternatives and starting points. The human anatomy is deformed to the shape of the basic sign, and the human ability to think is implied by the events around. It contains an expression which may sometimes be absent and sometimes moves as far as the borderline of its abstracted appearance. In this way, the viewers find themselves in front of many versions of compatible systems (stories), whose juxtaposition leads straight to the comparison of individual realisations.
                                                                           
Vlastimil Tetiva