Artwork of month
Jan Bauch Garden in Strahov, 1956

Jan Bauch
Garden in Strahov, 1956

oil, canvas
70.5 x 91.5 cm

in exposition 
From the collections
Masaryk Square No. 24
Jihlava

The creative career of painter and sculptor, but also of illustrator, graphic artist, writer, screenwriter, pedagogue, life lover and passionate discussant Jan Bauch, has been going on for almost the entire turbulent twentieth century. He is often mentioned as a solitaire who did not respond to contemporary artistic challenges, stood outside groups and movements. Bauch's temperament, diligence, strong attitudes to life combined with humility and sensitivity to the outside world gave rise to a comprehensive, and in number respectable work, glowing with internal and external fire.

August 2021

"Shots" endowed with Baroque excitations speak of a seemingly peaceful everyday life; composed images filled with symbols then articulate thought messages clothed with imaginations. The author communicated his experiences with gentle touches and nervously wavy brushstrokes, spatulas or uncompromising scratches in deposits of color relief. Finally, he called himself a "painting sculptor."

Views of his hometown, especially Loreta in Prague, were a matter of the artist's heart. A new series of paintings of Prague dates back to 1954 and also includes also the exhibited work. A full-blooded painting, probably depicting the moment of harvest in an apple orchard on a sunny day, offers us a chance to experience the artist's fascination. At the same time, the author blesses life with every stroke, whether it is a pulsating record of a human figure, a tree or grass.

Jan Bauch brought himself experiences and inspiration from travels around the world. In his work he mirrored first of all Greece, which he perceived with all its connotations as the basis of our culture, thought and democracy. In his nineties, Jan Bauch advocated the resumption of free exhibition, lecture and discussion activities, which were systematically suppressed during normalization in seventies. This won the sympathy of the young generation of creators. Bauch's timeless thinking is probably best illustrated by his own words:

"It seems to me that the contradictions of modern civilization and the conflicts of today's world, which constantly overwhelms every single person without exception, is not possible to escape into any ancient sweet peace... I think the sign of greatness is always the courage to enter the drama of the world. To enter that arena, raising the voice of protest, and undergoing an unequal struggle over and over again in the tragic conflict between the artist's humanity and the inhumanity of the world, which has taken on new and new forms throughout history."

Ilona Staňková