The World in Pictures, Chrudimská Beseda, Czechia 2022
Curator: Martina Vítková
Venue: Gallery of Modern Art in Hradec Králové
Dates: 7 September – 3 November 2022
Jan Šafránek was born in Hradec Králové in 1948; he painted advertising posters for the state film enterprise. He was among the first signatories of Charter 77, after signing which he was forced to emigrate as part of Operation Asanace. He lived in Vienna and Sydney, travelled extensively, and observed the world of people. Body language and facial expression often reveal what a person desires, what they cannot rid themselves of, and what irritates them to death. And perhaps also what their fate is, was, and will be. Šafránek’s paintings are a kinder version of Balzac’s Human Comedy; they draw inspiration from Dante’s Decameron, from Bruegel and Bosch. Much can also be found in the rococo genres of Watteau and Fragonard, not to mention Magritte and Edward Hopper. The carnival of human behavior parallels the poetics of Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel.
The hero of a painting may be a street vendor, a musician, a butcher, onlookers; the event of the day a picnic on the grass or the Last Supper. The subjects are folk amusements, the backdrop noisy as well as deserted pubs and bars, lazy summer afternoons and the bustle of festivities—in short, the hedonism of the everyday. Individual canvases come together to form an anthropological mosaic of world civilization with a captivating simplicity. The natural matter-of-factness is only seemingly plain; at second glance we discover a narrative as sophisticated as that of Henri Rousseau the Customs Officer, without even noticing the deliberateness.
Behind The World in the Paintings of Jan Šafránek stands a grand odyssey of knowledge and a concentration worthy of an old Dutch master.
