Jiří Bartůněk (1946) lives in Ústí nad Labem, a city where culture had always been on the periphery of the city, which is itself a periphery in the context of the cultural centres of Bohemia. This is why this artist was amongst the first generation of artists who began to engage in art, deep within the communist era, whose creativity took its vitality from the best that could be deduced from the world to the west of us. Thanks to his teaching activities, he had a direct influence on generations of followers (including me) who later made Ústí n. L. a major centre of visual art. The artist has retained his vitality and intellectual reflection to this day, even though he works on the fringes of the interest of influential theorists. I am convinced that the quality of his work is at least comparable to that of artists such as Jiří David, Jiří Kovanda, František Skála, etc. although he predates these artists by a generation. The key terms associated with his work are post-conceptualism, neo-conceptualism, constructivism and grotesque.
Jiří Černický