As a painter Luděk Rathouský examines current artistic and social issues. His free style and tendency towards a comics-based depiction of events or states lightens more serious preoccupations, such as commentaries on the mass media, the depiction of violence in contemporary society, the recycling of the values of Christian legacy, and a critique of production and the commerciality of art. A cunning irony forms a connecting point between the visual form of the work and its conceptual purpose.

Drawing using gel pen, pencil, spray paintings on paper or computer become the internal axis for thematically organised pictures. In most of his works we find an unrelenting fascination with evil and the monarchy as the means to its transformation. While the cycle of spray drawings History of Violence II uses fanciful condensation, in the older cycle Flood the artist attempts to remain closer to reality. In his computer drawings (e.g. Grippen, Holy or Salt Lake), which inhabit a grey area between black humour and artwork, Rathouský displays elements of evil with great emotional distance. In works such as Bloody Sunday I and II or Crossroads the artist addresses the issue of traffic accidents. All of these collections link fear with the enchantment which flows from the constant presence of the end, of the body and of power, as well as of the identifiable.

The cycle entitled Performance, which captures the duplicity of reality, has a special status within his work. He documented performances of the work (some on the initiative of the Rafani Group, of which Rathouský was co-founder) in the form of an independent large-format picture, which created a media parallel between his experience of the event and the joint video recording.

Probably the most intensive pictures are those which are resigned to social topicality and immerse themselves in the artist’s emotional world. Using various techniques, expressiveness created by the luminous atmosphere or unidentified objectives Rathouský organises the external mood of a picture. He allows its internal logic be heard by means of simple spatial schemas, which as well as a self-proclaimed idea have a symbolic character.

1999-2005 Academy of Fine Arts, Prague
(studios of J. David, V. Skrepl, V. Bromová and M. Rittstein)
2004 summer stemester at Koninklijke Academie voor Schone Kunstern, Antwerpen, Belgium (MA degree)

2001-2005 co-organizer of the Galerie CO 14
2005- 2009 curator of the Galerie Slávie Náchod
since 2009 external assistent at the Academy of Applied Arts, Prague (galerie 207.blogspot.com)
since 2010 curator of the Luxfer Gallery, Česká Skalice (galerie-luxfer.blogspot.com)
2009-2010 lector of summer art courses

(selection)
2009
Galerie Jelení, Praha- Ostrov včerejšího dne
Galerie 207, Praha- Úvozem

2008
Galerie Entrance, Praha- Nezvaní hosté

2007
Galerie Louvre Praha- Nervolnost

2006
Galerie C2C Praha- Slepí muži přeměřují slona
Stánek 36 Olomouc-Vernisáž 2006

2005
Galerie ETC – Důvod
Galerie ETC- produkce

2003
Rathaushallen Forrchheim- Bohmische Dorfer, D

(selection):
2010
Galerie NOD, Praha „Groteska“

2009
Galerie kritiků, Praha „Vlk a beránek“
4.Pražské bienále „Bílý papír černá nevěsta“

2008
Galerie města Blanska „Už stovky let to nebolí“
Galerie Wanieck, Brno „Současná česká malba“

2007
Galerie U Bílého jednorožce Klatovy, Galerie Šternberk, Východočeská galerie v Pardubicích, Kunst-und Gewerbeverein Regensburg “Lovci lebek“

2006
Video camp, Praha
Galerie AVU, Praha„Lebky“
Galerie Rudolfinum „Akné“

2005
Galerie Slávie „Spojení“

2004
Galerie A.M.180 „Telol“

2003
Galerie Tvrdohlaví „ Jarní sklizeň“

2002
Galerie H.M.P. „Mladý maso“

2001
Galerie V.Špály – Poprvé a naposled