There are very few painters in the history of Czech modern art for whom color and form are such a natural language as they are for Jiri Sopko.

At first glance, it is almost impossible to detect any striking changes or upheavals in his work. For him, the center of everything is the human figure, although his view of it is far from simple. His purely colorist execution, a natural painterly approach whose fluency is seemingly simple, conceals all the mysteries of life. He does not relate direct stories, but speaks in allegories, expressing himself symbolically about our being, searching through metaphors for hidden meaning and fundamental reason, since life is not served up to us or our daily existence on plate. Sopko uses all means available to make assaults on reality, not in order to simply rid it of its mystery, but to confirm that this mystery exists in order to lead us on.

 

If we follow Sopko's work carefully, we can see in his latest works an easing up for his sharp and sarcastic absurdity. Remaining true to this theme, he often changes the grimace into a smile and also possibly gentle indulgence. As before, he embodies human characteristics in a distorted way, but now he portrays his figures in the most unexpected but yet, at the same time, most ordinary situations. Occasionally, in the form of certain paraphrases or even gentle mockery, he returns to classical themes of modern European painting; however even they are their possible idyllic character conceal the devil of irony and the demon of absurdity.