Chicago/Vienna/Prague
A Short Artistic Biography
It was in my first year at the University of Notre Dame that I decided to major in Fine Arts and purse the life of an artist. Their study program was loosely structured, and the students choose their own path. In this program the students mainly worked independently under the guidance of a professor of their choice. I knew then that if I expected to regard myself as a painter, I must master the traditional skills of the Old Masters and a deep knowledge of art history. I therefore dedicated myself to acquiring the traditional skills of drawing and painting.
I recognized immediately the aesthetics and express potential of paint. I admired and wish to master the direct expressive facility of painting as exemplified by Manet, Hals and Corinth as well as the more indirect application of paint used by Titan, Velasquez and Rembrandt. I initially set my program on the study on still life painting. The purpose being to master the representation of space and volume through light and texture. My models were Vermeer and 17th century Dutch painting as well as Chardin. Figure drawing I pursued simultaneously with still life painting because I knew the absolute importance of mastering the human figure. I was greatly interested in Rubens and I studied him by making many copies of his work from reproductions. The school’s opportunities to painting the figure were limited. However, it was a very good environment for me as I was able to purse my obsession with the Old Masters in my own way.
Northern Illinois University, where I continued my studies, offered a much larger art program. I became more influenced by modern and contemporary ways of painting. I maintained my old master’s tradition of observational painting, but I was now developing the use of contemporary subject matter. I was attempting to apply Manet’s painting technique and aesthetics to popular images. I was also pursuing a more modern treatment of composition, color and the abstract design of the picture plane.
Chicago
When my studies were completed, I move immediately toward Chicago. Oak Park was first for a year and then into the city proper to a neighborhood prophetically called Pilsen. Prophetically because of my eventual relocation to the Czech Republic. At this time, I came into contact with Dennis Adrian, an influential art critic and collector, who would have an enormous influence on my life as an artist. He greatly encouraged my interest in figure painting, advised me artistically and professionally and promoted my work. I was receiving at first portrait commissions and then commissions for large scale figure compositions of my own inventions. Through Dennis Adrian I encountered the leading Chicago painters known by the name of Chicago Imagists. I had little in common with their direction in painting, but the intensity of their color and the bizarre and sometimes shocking images and compositions did intrigue and greatly influence me.
Vienna
As I was developing my figure painting style in Chicago I was also always looking to Europe. One particular painting I did in Chicago was of Salomé. I was always intrigued by this subject since in combined decadence, eroticism, and the bible. I was greatly interested in the work of Gustave Moreau as well as Gustav Klimt. My Salomé painting was done following a close reading of Oscar Wilde’s play while listening to the opera by Richard Strauss and Hugo von Hofmannsthal.
Fin-de-siècle Vienna became of particular interest to me and my first trip to the city was in the company of someone who knew it well. Inge Maser was originally from Berlin but knew Vienna extremely well and provided me with many introductions. These contacts made it possible for me to have the use of a studio from time to time in Vienna. I was then able to live briefly and work in Vienna occasionally over the years.
Less than a year after my first visit to Vienna, Inge Maser suggested a trip to Prague. I begged off because this trip followed to closely on the Vienna one and I did not have the money. Miraculously, I quite unexpectedly sold a painting and was able to go.
Prague
Prague was fascinating, and I also realized that at this time that it was relatively affordable. Along with my brother, who was with me on this trip, and an American we met there, we started to consider living in Prague. I always thought it would be important for me as a painter to live and work in Europe for an extended period of time. I did not, though, have enough money to relocate to Prague. However, prior to this in Chicago I met the art collectors Roy and Mary Cullen who became very important in my life as both collectors and sponsors. With generous support from them, I was able to move to Prague, set up a studio, and live and paint in Prague for year. I was also able to continue teaching abroad in Prague for the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, which further extended my ability to stay in Prague. During this period, I met my future wife which led to Prague becoming my permanent home.
In Prague I learned about the art surrounding the court and patronage of Rudolf II. The mannerist paintings of Bartholomeus Spranger and others were of particular interest to me. The contorted and artificial poses of his figures as well as the harsh acid quality of his colors reflected the way I was already painting in Chicago, so I enjoyed this affirmation of my work and new artists to admire and learn form.
Living in Prague also afforded me the ability to travel to Vienna often and see the great and important paintings in their collections. In particular I studied Rubens in the Kunsthistorisches museum and Liechtenstein Palace collection. I could also study the Klimt, Schiele and Kokoschka paintings in the Belvedere and Leopold museums. Artists that I had admired long before coming to Europe.
The paintings and works on paper I have done in the past approximately 25 years that I have been living in Prague reflect all these cities and experiences.
