Michael Rittstein

Bio

Michael Rittstein (*1949, Prague) graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague (1968–1974; Painting Studio / Arnošt Paderlík School). He belongs to prominent members of the 12/15 generation and to the most important representatives of expressive figure painting in the Czech Republic. In his early work, he benefited from the stimuli of Baroque frescoes and from the reflection of the apartment block lifestyle of normalization. Under the influence of surrealism, he moved towards a fantastic, narratively developed metaphor through a symbolic, abstracting painting structure. In addition to painting, he also works on spatial installations, drawing, illustrations and free graphics. His author's approach shows a systematic, pre-thought-out concept and is the result of many years of passion to tell stories, to record fleeting moments, bizarre stories that may have happened in the world of people or animals, to materialize emotions, experienced on his own skin and connected with a compulsive need to constantly observe the surrounding events . These are the impulses that awaken the author's imagination and stimulate his sometimes crude sense of humor. It is represented in numerous important collections (for example, the National Gallery in Prague, the Gallery of the City of Prague, GASK, the National Literature Memorial in Prague, most regional galleries in the Czech Republic, the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic, the Center Pompidou in Paris, the Albertinum in Vienna, in a number of private collections in the Czech Republic, Europe and the USA). He organized dozens of individual exhibitions and participated in many collective exhibitions; over the past ten years, more than 620 of his works have gone through auctions. In the years 2001–2018, he led the Painting Studio III at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague. At the turn of 2019-2020, the Prague Castle Riding Hall presented a cross-section of his paintings under the title Ve vlnách (curator Petr Mach). In 2021 Trafo Gallery published the publication Kangaroo Tarzan for the exhibition of the same name.