Lot 195

Jiří John (1923 - 1972) PLANTS (DECAY)

From the review by PhDr. Rey Michalová Ph.D: "Jiří John was a maverick who found kindred spirits among older artists. Among our artists, these were primarily Josef Šíma and Václav Boštík, and among foreign painters, Giorgio Morandi and Max Ernst. Jiří John is considered the greatest natural lyricist in Czech art of the second half of the 20th century. His "quiet," internalized, and at the same time emphatic painterly and graphic expression represents one of the most distinctive creative expressions of the period. Here, with a kind of sacred reverence, the author depicts the quiet, hidden life beneath the surface of the earth, where the organic and inorganic worlds gently intertwine. He reveals the unknown face of the landscape, discovering and highlighting hidden natural processes whose eternal cycle (sprouting, growth, decay) corresponds to the rhythm of the universe."