Jiří Straka – Live Painting
伊瑞 – 现场绘画

This catalogue is devoted to the art of the painter and sinologist Jiří Straka, who successfully linked the style and technique of Chinese ink painting with the tradition of the European school of painting.  Today, Czech artist Jiří Straka represents an entirely different type of global person – he is a sinified European.  He studied sinology at Charles University in Prague and is an expert and aficionado of ancient Chinese culture.  In the mid-1990s, Jiří Straka travelled to Beijing to study ink and wash painting at the Central Academy of Fine Arts.  He has mastered the traditional methods and techniques of the art, but does not let himself get tied down by rigidly adhering to the rules of the art. He has progressed to creating refined ink and wash paintings in a style that, according to traditional terminology, would be termed “boneless painting”. From the formal perspective, he has distanced himself from mainstream trend of Chinese literary free-hand brushwork (daxieyi) paintings.  He often paints a specific landscape, or flowers and plants, under the open sky.  He has a passion for large formats. This method of painting outside, in nature, stems from Western art traditions. He has had many successful exhibitions in prominent galleries and exhibition halls. These include, amongst others, the 798 Art District, the Today Art Museum, and the Times Art Museum in Beijing, and the Rudolfinum Gallery, Galerie Zdeněk Sklenář, and the Museum Kampa in Prague.