20th Century Art: A Different Perspective

20th Century Art: A Different Perspective

View full screen - View 1 of Lot 73. The Mummers.

Jaroslav Valečka

The Mummers

Lot Closed

November 9, 03:08 PM GMT

Estimate

4,000 - 6,000 GBP

Lot Details

Description

Jaroslav Valečka

Czech

b. 1972

The Mummers


signed and dated J. Valecka / 2021 on the reverse

oil on canvas

125 by 143cm., 49¼ by 56¼in.

Adam Hnojil (ed.), Jaroslav Valečka, Area Creativa 42, 2021, illustrated on the cover and on p. 70

'Jaroslav Valečka paints snowy landscapes with bizarre figures and depressive atmosphere. Nevertheless, they still radiate something essentially poetic. He situates them into the boundary periods of the day - ie dawn, twilight and night - and the effect is reinforced by more pronounced colours and the contrasts of glittering light and green-blue environnment. However, once we start examining his paintings from a closer perspective, they begin to reveal the haunting stories they contain.


Jaroslav Valečka's themes are taken from the border area of Luzicke hory where he grew up. He was deeply affected by the dillapidated houses and farmsteads, ruined churches and abandoned factories whose former residents were forced to leave. The portrayed tales are drawn from circulating stories, from his own memories or the stories he heard as a child. He approaches them in his own peculiar way and tends to push even banal stories to their extreme in which the boundary between horror and hyperbole disappears.'


Marketa Hornerova