Curator: Martin Dostal, co-operation: Milada Slizinska
Jiri David, a middle generation artist, creates paintings, photographs, installations and video. He is regarded as one of the most interesting artists of Czech contemporary art. As a initiator of the artistic group "Tvrdohlavi" he has significantly contributed to the process of assimilation of elements from the postmodern culture into Czech art. At present he is also a lecturer at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague.
The exhibition "Hidden image" (Skryte Podoby) has been organised by the "Rudolfinum" Gallery - one of the most important galleries in Prague. The exhibition consists of 35 duplicated portraits, each measuring 170x70 cm. Jiri David uses in his work a method created at the beginning of the 20th century and occasionaly used in psychological and anthropological research. He divides a photograph of a face with a precise cut and then connects the same halves directly to one another: two left halves and two right halves. In this way he creates two new portraits which very distinctly differ from the initial picture.
Jiri David started to work on this project in 1993 when he took a picture of Martin Kippenberger, and finished in February 1995 by photographing Dennis Hopper. During this period, together with photographers Petr and Martin Polak, he took pictures in different places: the Czech Republic, USA, Poland, Germany, Austria and France.
He mainly concentrated on individuals from political, cultural, scientific and artistic life. Among other outstanding personalities used by artist there are: film directors - Francis Ford Coppola and Roman Polanski, actors - Philippe Noiret, Max von Sydow and Dennis Hopper, writers - Bohumil Hrabal, Allen Ginsberg, Arthur Miller and Norman Mailer, musicians - John Cale, David Byrne and Diamanda Galas, artists - Jeff Koons and Christian Boltanski, as well as a politician - Vaclav Havel and a sportsman - John McEnroe. The exhibition includes also photographs of famous Polish people: Jacek Kuron, Krzysztof Zanussi and Krzysztof Kieslowski. Together he created 95 images of personalities who, each in their particular way, have played an important role in the last decades and are known from the media.
The exhibition was first presented in June 1995 in the "Rudolfinum" Gallery in Prague and was one of last year's most important artistic events in the Czech Republic. In 1995 it was also displayed at the Venice Biennal and at the Jack Tilton Gallery in New York.