Since the first two decades of my life were spectacularly awful—spent under Hitler’s & Stalin’s occupation—I became determined to escape Prague at the first opportunity and develop my art in the West. I succeeded in 1965.
My painting did not start with an agenda to return what art had lost in the postmodern period—not at all—instead it was my free, idealistic, non-conforming character that forced me to build myself without much concern for trends, for being “in”. It gave me the ability & willingness to be “out of sync”.
Looking back at my work, it seems to me that my art has provided an alternative to the verbal, non-visual trends. By now, the record shows the absurdity of the postmodern aim when subjective self- expression was discarded in order to provide “more objective” art. Without personal focus, how can art be authentic? Without visual power, how can art endure?
JD 2009