Karel Štědrý

Karel Štědrý (1985). The paintings of the contemporary Czech painter and graphic artist Karel Štědrý are easily recognizable at first glance by their bold colour scheme and unmistakable handwriting, which was formed at the time when he was active in the Obr. art group together with Josef Achrer, David Hanvald, Martin Krajc and Ondřej Maleček; at the time of the adoration of conceptualism, the group did not abandon the medium of painting and, on the contrary, began to integrate it into a broader historical and international context. The gradual development of his painting expression led Karel Štědrý from figurative painting through popular scenes from breakdancing to geometric abstraction, which has persisted to the present day. His expression, however, never abandoned a plasticity that seems to let the individual geometric forms emerge from his paintings. To deepen the feeling of plasticity, Karel Štědrý uses children’s plasticine. Before the actual painting, he creates an object from it, transfers it to a graphic program, and the result becomes a sketch and sometimes even a basis for some of his paintings.