According to experts, Jiří Sopko is considered to be one of the most important representatives of Czech figurative art. His work is characterized by an unmistakable style, with distinctive colors and inner poetics, and a gentle sense of humor. His works are unclassifiable, original, and timeless.
Since the seventies, Sopko preferred to group his paintings and motifs into triplets. These sets of paintings connected by motif and composition appeared in greater numbers after 1989, and completely dominated his painting work around 2000, when Sopko depicted static figures, objects or geometric compositions in various color mutations. His later work continued to develop in motif series and cyclical returns. The subject itself was not crucial, as color played the main role, often reduced to the relationship of two tones. Like wave after wave, the motifs are repeated again and again, but each time with elements of playful variety.
Since the 1980s, both in his solitary works and sets, Sopko regularly returned to motifs of water, swimmers, bathing figures, waves, and the open sea.
The Vlna za Vlnou (Wave after Wave) exhibition was created in cooperation with the Gema Gallery in Prague, which has represented Sopko and presented his work in exhibition halls since the 1990s. The Gema Gallery was founded in March 1990 and quickly established itself as an important institution presenting modern and contemporary art on a global scale.
This exhibition at the Danubiana Meulensteen Art Museum features the most extensive collection of diptychs, triptychs, and series from 1989 to 2022. The exhibited works, mainly from the collections of the Gema Gallery, are complemented by works from private and gallery collections.
Jiří Sopko was born on February 20, 1942 in the small town of Dubov in Subcarpathian Ruthenia. From 1956 to 1960 he studied at the Václav Hollar Art School, and from 1960 to 1966 at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague under prof. Antonín Pelec. He is part of the artistic generation that entered the visual arts scene during period of Normalization. He held his first solo exhibition in Nová síň (New Hall) in Prague in the summer of 1970 before being forced to leave the art scene and make a living as a restorer. His next opportunities to exhibit did not arise until the second half of the eighties. In 1987, he joined the artistic group 12/15 Pozdě, ale přece (12/15 Better Late Than Never). In 1990, the students of the Prague Academy chose him to be their teacher and head of the painting studio. He remained at this position until 2016. Between 2003 and 2010, he also served as the rector of the academy.
