Michael Rittstein: Wound in the Wall
May 31 – July 14, 2024
Expo 58 ART Exhibition Hall
Curators: Michael Rittstein, Vladimir Lekes
Production: Zdena Ruzickova
On May 31, 2024, Adolf Loos Apartment and Gallery opened a unique sales exhibition of the leading representative of Czech figurative painting, Michael Rittstein, in its exclusive exhibition hall Expo 58 ART.
The exhibition, entitled Wound in the Wall, presented his most recent work. Michael Rittstein is one of the representatives of expressive figurative painting of the 1970s generation, who continued the tradition of modern Czech grotesque and especially the new figuration. Michael Rittstein's expressive paintings, sarcastic depictions of interpersonal relationships are all based on expressive exaggeration, shape deformation and clear colouring.
Michael Rittstein graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague (1968-1974; Studio of Painting/ Arnost Paderlik School). He is a prominent member of the generation 12/15 Pozde, ale prece; Nova skupina; S.V. U. Manes. From 2001 to 2018 he was the chief instructor of the painting studio at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague. Appointed professor in 2012, he influenced the next generation of artists with his work. A native of Prague Michael Rittstein grew up close by the Expo 58 pavilion in Letna, which he often visited with his parents and grandmother and remembers fondly.
In recent years, he has been working exclusively in his studio in Brnirov in the Bohemian Forest, a change that has had a considerable influence on his subject register. Large-scale works and small-scale works often abound with themes of musicians, women or campers, and animals usually appear as subjects, often in personified roles. Recent works refer to the painter's accounts of his travels in South America and form a collage registering what was seen.
Michael Rittstein is represented in important national collections (for example, the National Gallery in Prague, the Prague City Gallery, the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, the Albertina Museum in Vienna, the Danubiana Meulensteen Art Museum in Bratislava, and a number of private collections in the Czech Republic, Europe, the USA and Australia). He has held dozens of solo exhibitions and participated in many collective exhibitions. His work has long been of exceptional interest to collectors.
The exhibition was organized by Adolf Loos Apartment and Gallery
in its Expo 58 ART exhibition hall
(Letenské sady 1500/80, Prague 7)
