Jan Merta
Jan Merta (*1952, Šumperk), one of the great Czech painters, is shaping a new understanding of art. He deconstructs the depiction of reality in painting by abstracting everyday objects until the actual subject is lost in the reduced representation, but the boundary to abstraction was never crossed in his paintings. In terms of form and content, his works never strayed from their subject matter. Merta studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague during the communist period, but never wanted to follow the socialist realist style. The artist drew inspiration from the works of Andy Warhol, Barnett Newman, and Mark Rothko, whose free thinking about art he discovered in his university library. In his painting, Merta works with motifs taken from everyday life, which he then abstracts so that their meaning becomes more complex and profound. A reduced representation of the human body, portraits, architecture-based elements, or free-floating objects are frequently found in Merta's works; they change and appear familiar and intimate depending on the perspective.
Jan Merta’s works belong to reputable private and institutional collections internationally including the Belvedere, Vienna, Austria; Forum Limbach, Limbach, Austria; PPF Art, Prague, Czech Republic; The Sublime Hyacinth Collection, Prague, Czech Republic; Collection of Duke Franz of Bavaria, Munich, Germany.
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Portraits
4 March - 26 June 2021Devoted entirely to the portrait, this exhibition gathers a wide variety of creative expressions offered in this genre. To this day, the portrait has remained one of the most important,...Read more -
Jan Merta
My Fault? 15 September - 24 November 2018On the occasion of the OPEN art 2018, Galerie Rüdiger Schöttle presents the work of renowned Czech painter Jan Merta. First attempts at describing the artist’s paintings invariably fail when...Read more -
Jānis Avotiņš, Anders Clausen, Slawomir Elsner, Rodney Graham, Thomas Helbig, Goshka Macuga, Jan Merta, Andrew Palmer, Thomas Ruff, Thomas Struth, Chen Wei, Thomas Zipp 1 - 30 July 2016
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Art Basel 2020
17 - 26 June 2020Art Basel 2020 Kunstmarkt Kunstmesse Art Fair Art Market Stephan Balkenhol, Dan Graham, Ma Ke, Karin Kneffel, Candida Höfer, Goshka Macuga, Jan Merta, Thomas Ruff,...Read more -
Art Basel 2019
13 - 16 June 2019Art Basel 2019 Kunstmarkt Kunstmesse Art Fair Art Market Helene Appel, Janis Avotins, Stephan Balkenhol, David Claerbout, Dan Graham, Rodney Graham, Toulu Hassani, Lorena Herrera...Read more