Petr Veselý – Kundračíková Barbora (2023)

Petr Veselý (1953) is a prominent figure in Czech painting of the last five decades. He emerged during the contradictory period of peak normalization and belongs to a group of artists who began to define themselves against the existing practice of semi-official or directly unofficial art at the turn of the 70s and 80s. His strong local and spiritual grounding led Veselý to consciously measure his work against tradition, whether that of previous generations or even much older traditions, such as medieval hanging paintings, French realism, or cubism influenced by Cubism. His intense stay outside the center – in his hometown of Brno – played a significant role. Together with Vladimír Kokolia, Petr Kvíčala, and Jan Steklík, he co-founded the informal artistic association Tovaryšstvo malířské. Alongside the advancing abstraction in painting, a similarly strong current of reduced, graphic, or textual conceptual sketches gradually established itself in Veselý's work. Another significant element is the establishment of the painting as an object in the third dimension. From the firm connection of all these positions arose Veselý's typical thinking in 'open cycles' that traverse time and media, yet fundamentally take place on the plane of the painting. This...