This intimate gallery space Na bidýlku II presents works by the youngest generation of artists, current students and art school graduates. Its name and mission recall the activities of the gallerist Karel Tutsch, whose collection was acquired by GMU in 2021.
A native of Hradec Králové, MATOUŠ HRBEK (b. 1995) studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, initially under Vladimír Skrepl and Jan Šerých, and subsequently under Robert Šalanda and Lukáš Machalický.
In his artistic practice, Hrbek places great importance on the painting process itself, on impermanence and on chance moments that give rise to a dialogue between drawing, painting and currently woodcut as well. He has long sought authentic narratives through intuitively crafted situations that connect his inner experience with everyday life.
The exhibition Men Who Left Behind Sawdust presents a set of paintings and hand-worked wood reliefs whose central theme is the motif of the journey in all its diverse forms – as physical movement through the landscape, as a space for pausing and reflecting and as a metaphor for artistic creation, personal searching and constantly setting higher goals for oneself. All these layers are naturally interconnected and mutually conditioned. The life of the artist is often associated with experiential intensity, perseverance and doubts regarding the meaning of one’s work. The creative process becomes a journey with a clearly defined goal – to “make art”. It is a journey characterized by moments of concentration, uncertainty, discovery and returns.
The exhibition was supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic and the Statutory City of Hradec Králové.
