Jan Merta
27 Jan - 24 Feb 2007
Jan Merta
27.01.07-24.02.07
Jan Merta’s work, in all its diversity, is unified by a restraint and concentration that remove his images from any clear stylistic classification. Born in Sumperk, Czechoslovakia in 1952, the painter now belongs to the most renowned Czech artists of his generation because of his calm originality and independence.
Merta presents his simple motifs in a stylized fashion, almost like drawings, which transports the pictorial transformation into the foreground. In doing so, he easily masters different canvas formats and the interplay between the two-dimensional application of color with gentle but precise brushstrokes and obvious complexity. Painting based in concreteness seems to continually dissolve into abstraction. In the large-format image “Red Slum”, which portrays a densely built-up residential area, the facades of houses or reflective window surfaces appear as colored stains that recur in a rhythm on the canvas. In other paintings, the border of a surface that seems abstract might reveal the mimetic reproduction of an object. Merta is never exclusively interested in the isolated representation of objects, but always in their relationship to their surroundings. In the pictorial spaces he creates, motifs fuse into backgrounds. Image planes are never clearly separated, but penetrate one another. This does not stem from a mere simplification, but also from Merta’s choice of vantage point and perspective. As in picture puzzles, the image’s layers shift their position in the eye of the beholder. Sometimes the motif dominates; sometimes it seems to be absorbed by the background. Spectators cannot decide what they see at first or cannot make the decision without further information. They require time to comprehend the spontaneously salvaged theme of the painting, which frequently only becomes accessible through the title of the work.
Merta’s motifs always emanate from his immediate everyday environment. He generally pursues themes for years and treats them in variations. He often works on his images for a long time, and the changes in his works during this period often reflect the transformation of his attitude as he grapples with them. Hence, the first works from Merta’s series of building images allude to distance and a certain rejection. In contrast, the most recent, which are also included in this exhibit, convey a deep self-absorption in their theme. This is translated into a pictorial vision of social reality.
Above all, Merta thus seems to pursue the question of how context and perspective shape the things pictured in his art. He displaces the possibility of explicitly charging his content and interpreting it as something fixed. Instead, he allows a possibility for creating something more general between painter and observer that resists detailed representation.
© Jan Merta, Roter Slum, 1995-2007, oil on canvas, 195 x 360 cm
27.01.07-24.02.07
Jan Merta’s work, in all its diversity, is unified by a restraint and concentration that remove his images from any clear stylistic classification. Born in Sumperk, Czechoslovakia in 1952, the painter now belongs to the most renowned Czech artists of his generation because of his calm originality and independence.
Merta presents his simple motifs in a stylized fashion, almost like drawings, which transports the pictorial transformation into the foreground. In doing so, he easily masters different canvas formats and the interplay between the two-dimensional application of color with gentle but precise brushstrokes and obvious complexity. Painting based in concreteness seems to continually dissolve into abstraction. In the large-format image “Red Slum”, which portrays a densely built-up residential area, the facades of houses or reflective window surfaces appear as colored stains that recur in a rhythm on the canvas. In other paintings, the border of a surface that seems abstract might reveal the mimetic reproduction of an object. Merta is never exclusively interested in the isolated representation of objects, but always in their relationship to their surroundings. In the pictorial spaces he creates, motifs fuse into backgrounds. Image planes are never clearly separated, but penetrate one another. This does not stem from a mere simplification, but also from Merta’s choice of vantage point and perspective. As in picture puzzles, the image’s layers shift their position in the eye of the beholder. Sometimes the motif dominates; sometimes it seems to be absorbed by the background. Spectators cannot decide what they see at first or cannot make the decision without further information. They require time to comprehend the spontaneously salvaged theme of the painting, which frequently only becomes accessible through the title of the work.
Merta’s motifs always emanate from his immediate everyday environment. He generally pursues themes for years and treats them in variations. He often works on his images for a long time, and the changes in his works during this period often reflect the transformation of his attitude as he grapples with them. Hence, the first works from Merta’s series of building images allude to distance and a certain rejection. In contrast, the most recent, which are also included in this exhibit, convey a deep self-absorption in their theme. This is translated into a pictorial vision of social reality.
Above all, Merta thus seems to pursue the question of how context and perspective shape the things pictured in his art. He displaces the possibility of explicitly charging his content and interpreting it as something fixed. Instead, he allows a possibility for creating something more general between painter and observer that resists detailed representation.
© Jan Merta, Roter Slum, 1995-2007, oil on canvas, 195 x 360 cm