Opening of the exhibition Jiří Baštýř - Thrown Into The Muddy Waters

May 7th, 2025 | 6PM - 10PM

Jiří Baštýř's paintings can be likened to an explosion that overwhelms all the viewer's senses until there is only one option left - to observe. The tension built up by the author is more acute with each passing second and in a way more pressing. In spite of this, Baštýř's paintings have the ability to enchant the viewer, enveloping them and making them feel the specific atmosphere that emanates from the works.

The central motif of the exhibited works are muddy figures, the artist's hypothetical doubles, a kind of entity with which the viewer is confronted. They are silent figures who speak to you only through grimaces and facial expressions. With his paintings, Baštýř encourages us to look inside ourselves, not into places that are familiar to us, but into unexplored and dark corners of our consciousness and subconscious. But we must take this journey into the darkness without light. According to the well-known psychologist Carl Gustav Jung, knowing one's own darkness is the best method of dealing with other people's darkness, and Baštýř's paintings work in a similar way, giving us a glimpse into our own darkness.

The search for one's identity and the overall motif of the double or alter ego permeates contemporary society and seeps into the artistic sphere. The exhibition Thrown Into The Muddy Waters “throws” us into the dark waters of our own interior. Baštýř's paintings draw us in like deep river mud and at the moment when we least expect it, we can see ourselves in the reflection of the surface.

Link to the FB event.