The retrospective exhibition presents in detail the work of sculptor Jan Křížek, a highly original Czech artist who settled in France in the second half of the 20th century.
Although primarily a sculptor, he also left behind a large body of drawing and graphic work. The exhibition traces the artist’s life and work and places his oeuvre in the international context of post-war art. During his sojourn in Paris beginning in 1947, Křížek was involved in the local art community and met with prominent artists. He was one of the fi rst to exhibit in the newly founded Foyer de l’art brut of Jean Dubuffet and joined the circle of artists around Charles Estienne, a leading theoretician of post-war abstraction and adherent of tachism. He participated in meetings of the surrealist group and corresponded with André Breton about automatic drawing.
He presented his artworks in progressive galleries in Paris and attended several major collective exhibition projects. In his working prime, aged 44, he decided to quit art and moved to the French countryside to raise bees.
The exhibition presents many hitherto unknown artworks loaned from public and private collections in the Czech Republic and France and adds works by friends and contemporaries who shared his views about art (e.g. Václav Boštík, René Duvillier, Jean Degottex, Jean Dubuffet, Pablo Picasso)
