Mainer Martin *1959

Eternal Demons, 1994

woodcut, paper, frame, glass, 61 × 53 cm, signed MAINER 94 lower right, marked 'Eternal demons' in the lower centre
The unifying element in the work of the Czech artist Jiří David is the social engagement, in which the artist reveals his own, but also our common reality and identity in a provocative and critical manner. Ever since the 1980s, when David became an important representative of JIŘÍ DAVID with his postmodern artistic program has been pointing to the sentiment of national identity, in the photographic series Hidden images (1991-1995) manipulated photographic portraits of famous personalities or showed weeping politicians in the series Without Compassion (2002). His seventeen-metre-long neon heart for Václav Havel, placed at Prague Castle in 2002. For David, painting is a means of exploring his own personal experience, but also a reflection on cultural history and artistic styles.