Jan Hísek (*1965) graduated from the book culture and typography at the Academy of Arts, Architecture, and Design in Prague. His main sources of inspiration include symbolism, mysticism, and surrealism. From the beginning, his work has been characterised by an unusual combination of abundant imagination and a sense of realistic detail. Since the late 1980s, he has been working with the demanding graphic technique of mezzotint, which became established in the Baroque as the only method capable of simulating chiaroscuro. Using this technique, he has created hundreds of solitary prints and award-winning book illustrations. Recently, he has also been intensively devoted to painting – he chooses canvases of increasingly larger formats and sticks to a monochromatic palette of shades of red. Jan Hísek's work features motifs of fantasy plants, animals, or fairy-tale mysterious creatures that inhabit the landscape growing out of the magical movement of small segments and their layering. He sees them through the eyes of a visionary, a dreamer who plays with the metamorphoses of time and landscape. His work is characterized not only by intuitive expression but also by technical precision and subtle work with detail.
The basis of his artistic expression has always been drawing, which allows him to combine real and abstract elements coming from the subconscious. Within the framework of intuitive art, he is inspired by drawing with both hands and blindfolded, where the movements of his hands are guided by a “higher power”. He experimented with these practices most in the years 2000–2004. The counterpoint to his meticulously executed “cathedral” paintings are intuitive drawings that flow organically across the paper, reminiscent of wildly flourishing vegetation. Quite automatically, he created a unique series of small “mourn” sketches, which he drew on small papers at the time when his mother was dying. Unlike Karel Malich, who depicted the detachment of the liberated soul from the dying body in his Mother series, Hísek reflected on his pain.
