Jiří David (*1956), the initiator of the seven unofficial Confrontation art exhibitions and a member of the legendary Tvrdohlaví [The Stubborn] group, is known to the public largely through his provocative interventions in public space and as an active participant in a considerable number of discussions and polemics on directions in Czech society and culture.
Although Jiří David has been one of the most prominent figures on the Czech art scene in the last twenty-five years, with international renown, this show will be his first retrospective in an art gallery. The exhibition presents Jiří David as, first and foremost, a creative personality who has been moulding contemporary Czech art since the mid-1980's. The core of the retrospective is a return to the half-forgotten roots of David's sensitivity, matters that originally resonated with embracing the "new painting" and some aspects of post-modernism, and later evolved in responses to the ambiguous position of western civilisation in today's world, as well as in regard to an intensely experienced responsibility of the individual towards society. For the first time in many years, a host of the paintings, installations and objects without which one cannot imagine the face of contemporary Czech art is displayed. The exhibition is accompanied by an extensive catalogue with commentary by Marek Pokorný, Jana and Jiří Ševčík, Martin Dostál, Noemi Smolik and Edith Jeřábková.
