Václav Stratil
Black Drawing
Artist
Václav Stratil
(1950, Olomouc), Czech
Original Title
Black Drawing
Date1980-1990
Mediumwatercolour and ink on paper
Dimensions 76 × 62 cm
Classificationsdrawings
Credit LineKunsthalle Praha
DescriptionVáclav Stratil is a unique artist most commonly working with painting, drawing, photography, and performance art. Rather than rational inquiry, his practice prioritizes a sensitive approach to the question of human identity. He constantly oscillates between a focused, meditative position, a parodically naive approach, and a provocatively self-ironic stance, thus disrupting conventional ideas about the nature of art.
This sizeable India ink piece titled Black Drawing depicts an obsessive repetition of a circle. It was created during the 1980s, when Stratil was focusing on meditatively toned work. This introspection was related to spiritual poetry and to Stratil’s job as a night doorman at the convent of St. Agnes, owned by the National Gallery. It is also connected to an interest, developed during this time, in Eastern philosophy and Christian Gnosticism*, which filled a spiritual void hollowed by totalitarian communism. The black energy field, formed by repeatedly layered strokes, is the result of Stratil’s deep submersion into his body and mind, which he viewed as a cleansing spiritual ritual. The piece also reflects Stratil’s study of works of the old masters created through a lengthy process of layering glazes which imbues the paintings with an air of depth and spirituality.
Václav Stratil (*1950, Olomouc) studied at the Faculty of Arts at the Palacký University in Olomouc. In the 1970s, he was part of the local underground art scene while also making a living through various daytime jobs. In 1983, he moved to Prague, where he began to work as a night doorman. The development of his artistic practice was influenced by discovering the work of Adriena Šimotová. His early expressively figurative work from the 1970s drew upon the iconography of Christian art. His practice later underwent a formal reduction, leading to the creation of his well-known meditative pieces. From 1991 to 1995, Stratil produced the first of his performative photographic series, titled Monastic Patient, in which he used self-portraits to explore the fluidity of human identity through various costumes, props, gestures, and facial expressions. Since the late 1990s, he has been living and working in Brno. In 1998, he became head of the Drawing Studio at the Faculty of Fine Arts at the Brno University of Technology, later becoming head of the Intermedia Studio from 2003 to 2015. In 2003, he returned to painting and drawing, most frequently thematizing the blurred boundaries between the naive drawings of children, lowbrow artforms, and high art. He is a laureate of the 2004 Michal Ranný Prize.
This sizeable India ink piece titled Black Drawing depicts an obsessive repetition of a circle. It was created during the 1980s, when Stratil was focusing on meditatively toned work. This introspection was related to spiritual poetry and to Stratil’s job as a night doorman at the convent of St. Agnes, owned by the National Gallery. It is also connected to an interest, developed during this time, in Eastern philosophy and Christian Gnosticism*, which filled a spiritual void hollowed by totalitarian communism. The black energy field, formed by repeatedly layered strokes, is the result of Stratil’s deep submersion into his body and mind, which he viewed as a cleansing spiritual ritual. The piece also reflects Stratil’s study of works of the old masters created through a lengthy process of layering glazes which imbues the paintings with an air of depth and spirituality.
Václav Stratil (*1950, Olomouc) studied at the Faculty of Arts at the Palacký University in Olomouc. In the 1970s, he was part of the local underground art scene while also making a living through various daytime jobs. In 1983, he moved to Prague, where he began to work as a night doorman. The development of his artistic practice was influenced by discovering the work of Adriena Šimotová. His early expressively figurative work from the 1970s drew upon the iconography of Christian art. His practice later underwent a formal reduction, leading to the creation of his well-known meditative pieces. From 1991 to 1995, Stratil produced the first of his performative photographic series, titled Monastic Patient, in which he used self-portraits to explore the fluidity of human identity through various costumes, props, gestures, and facial expressions. Since the late 1990s, he has been living and working in Brno. In 1998, he became head of the Drawing Studio at the Faculty of Fine Arts at the Brno University of Technology, later becoming head of the Intermedia Studio from 2003 to 2015. In 2003, he returned to painting and drawing, most frequently thematizing the blurred boundaries between the naive drawings of children, lowbrow artforms, and high art. He is a laureate of the 2004 Michal Ranný Prize.
Jiří David
