Sobotka Jiří *1955

Delight, 1990

glass resin, 178 cm, engraved signature
Under these influences, Jiří Sobotka searches for metaphors and allegories at the end of the 1980s. In the early 1980s, Sobotka began to find a new direction for his work. This is reflected in the drawings from that time, which fix various ideas. The motif of the vessel and the element of fluid, flow, distortion of a fixed shape, appear for the sculptor. ...actually quite inappropriate for a sculptor. The expressive sculptural form of the works with a technical theme alternates with impersonal, simplistic forms. Around 1990, a group of sculptures was created which, in a special way, were intermingling materiality with fragments of the human figure or looser allusions to the physical principle. There is a bottle walking resignedly (Something with Contents, 1990), a wounded and bleeding bottle (Wounds of a Bottle, 1990) or a figure sitting stiffly with his head mistaken for a light bulb (Untitled, 1990). The shape metaphors and the titles of these sculptures suggest existential content - how else understand the kneeling male torso through which a stream of blue liquid flows in vain (Something with Destiny, 1990) or the life dilemma directly inscribed on the base of one terracotta statue - "Vita activa/vita contemplativa" (Teoréma, 1990). At the same time, there are recognizable allusions to archaic art (ancient Egyptian and Greek sculpture) or classical iconographic types (christological theme). This layering of references and use of images stored in historical memory gives Sobotka's personal reflections grounded in the more general meanings conveyed by the familiar language shared by cultural signals. It shows traces of a postmodernist view with its look back to the art history and his scepticism towards the privileged authorial self and subjective expression. Indirect expression by detouring through fragments of familiar symbols and stories appears at this time in other generationally related authors (e.g. Nikl, Róna, Gabriel) and seemed to lead back to understanding and to resume the interrupted communication between artist and spectator, which complicated by the complexity of modernist concepts. Lit.: Jiří Sobotka, Skororetro, 2015, published by J. Sobotka, illustrated on p. 11 Exhibited in the Brno City Museum, at the castle Špilberk, 2015, in the Art Gallery of Brno Art Gallery in Cheb, 1992, at the House of Art Brno, 1991.