Jiří Kornatovský (*1952) began studying painting and graphic arts at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague in the studio of Arnošt Paderlík and Jiří Ptáček at the ripe old age of thirty. He originally trained as an electrician and worked at the National Gallery in Prague, where he deepened his interest in fine art. After graduating from the Academy of Fine Arts, he worked as a teacher in the art departments of universities in Prague and Pilsen and often lectured abroad. Already in his childhood he was strongly impressed by the contemplative atmosphere of Christian monasteries, especially the abandoned Cistercian convent in Plasy in western Bohemia, near which he grew up. This spiritual experience later became embedded in his original artistic work.
Kornatovsky is known for his unique "meditative" drawings, which have become his characteristic and de facto only artistic expression, subverting established ideas about the use of drawing techniques. Drawing in his conception no longer means small formats of preparatory sketches, but occupies huge areas of paper, traditionally reserved mainly for painting. His monumental charcoal drawings reach up to five metres in length. Through concentrated, constantly repeated layering of lines, he builds voluminous, mysterious abstract objects, evoking a perfect spatial illusion of infinity, of massive pulsating energies that draw the viewer into the centre of their creation and dissolution. They evoke an impression of dynamic rotation, based on the artist's transcendental experiences during prayers and meditations. His works were created in deep meditative concentration (he drew some of them in the solitude and silence of Christian monasteries) and with their unique timeless quality they occupy a significant place in Czech and European modern drawing.
