Josef Bolf
Czech, born 1971

Classroom, 2009

Josef Bolf (born October 7, 1971 in Prague) is a painter living in the Check Republic. He studied at the Academy in Prague from1990–1998. In 1995 he studied at Kongsthögskolan (Stockholm) and in 1996 at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Stuttgart. From 1996 to 2002 he was a member of the art group Bezhlavý jezdec.

Bolf's creations capture strange characters, often suffering, sometimes half-animal. His paintings are often considered depressed, gloomy, sad, melancholy. His ideas often stem from his childhood spent in the southern city of Prague. His figurative paintings exist against the background of a more or less realistic landscape that emphasizes the narrative.

He is part of the first generation not under the control of Communist censorship and able to have connections with foreign and western artistic scenes. Josef Bolf works in collaboration with artists Šerých, Ján Manuška and Tomáš Vanek with whom he created the artist group BJ (Bezhlavý jezdec/The Headless Knight).

His work revolves around childhood, his memories and the surrounding gloom which took over between 1968 with the Prague Spring and the Velvet Revolution in 1989, a period known as the Normalization period, characterized by the restoration of "Communist norms".

His work is in the following collections: 8smička, Humpolec, Czech Republic; AMC Collezione Coppola, Vicenza, Italy; Collett Prague/Munich, Czech Republic/Germany; Eileen S. Kaminsky Family Foundation, Jersey City, New Jersey; Fait Gallery, Brno, Czech Republic; Galerie Klatovy/Klenová, Czech Republic; GAVU, Cheb, Czech Republic; GHMP, Praha, Czech Republic; Hudson Valley MOCA, Peekskill, New York; Marek Collection, Brno, Czech Republic; Moravian Gallery, Brno, Czech Republic; National Gallery, Praha, Czech Republic; Olomouc Museum of Art, Czech Republic; Pudil Family Foundation, Praha, Czech Republic; and Robert Runták Collection, Olomouc, Czech Republic.

Back to How We Live: Part 2

Josef Bolf, Classroom, 2009

Classroom, 2009