Tadeáš Kotrba graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in 2012. By this time he had already formed his personal style, which he went on to develop over the next few years. This represented an original parallel to many current manifestations of the international art scene at the time, in part belonging to the circle of the “School of Kluže” or what was known as the New Leipzig School. Though these sources did not create a clearly defined trend, they were united by certain features that can also be found in Kotrba’s work. The basic element was the depiction of the human figure, usually in a civilian manner, within an expressive setting using the techniques of realist illusionist painting. However, realism was complemented by various painterly effects aimed at creating an emotionally powerful image with a certain atmosphere, often gloomy, disturbing or downright existential.
Kotrba’s style, however, was characterised by a marked economy in the use of painting resources. He combined thin layers of watercolour painting with oils, especially with the inclusion of a base, first in the form of a white gesso, later in the form of glued linen canvas. The latter he left largely unpainted, and the rich yet subtle and muted watercolour scheme thus harmonised in a fascinating way with the natural colour. Kotrba’s painterly language thus evoked Chinese ink landscape painting in certain ways. His figural subjects, in a precise painterly compression conceived almost as a photographic snapshot, in turn “resembled illustrations from European travel or adventure novels in their narrative character” (Veronika Resslová), which corresponded with the content of the paintings revealing the inspiration of foreign places on the artist. Later on, conceptual elements began to appear in his paintings, upsetting their illusory character, such as completely empty or monochrome surfaces, where “in the banded vision of horizons we see a touch of colour fields in the style of Mark Rothko” (Emma Hanzlíková). Kotrba also began to attach greater importance to installation, which he conceived of as a work in its own right. For example, he completed his figural canvases with his own monochromes or the works of his father, Mario Kotrba. The latter, an outstanding sculptor and also – something that is less well known – an interesting painter of the postmodern generation and creator of many superb projects for public space, died tragically at the height of his career in 2011.
Reflections upon the work of Kotrba the elder are connected with the last significant transformation that Kotrba the younger’s style underwent in 2019. It was at that time that he began to combine the elements described above with figurative scenes derived from his father’s drawings, which are of a completely different character. These drawings, mainly from the last year of the artist’s life, are full of unease and figures of demons and angels. His son takes individual parts and entire compositions from them, attempting to interpret them as faithfully as possible and preserve their original lightness. And so two worlds are intertwined in the paintings: one real and realistically depicted in which the arts and his family, including his father appear; the other imaginary and grotesquely stylised, the drawn character of which suggests that it remains invisible to the former. Kotrba developed a specific procedure for their transposition. He first cuts the lines of his father’s drawings into paper tape, on which he then applies white acrylic paste. The sharp drawing stands out in slight relief, clearly separating it from his typical painting, which is absorbed into the background. However, he eventually became so taken with painting over a stencil that he began to use this technique as a complement to his better known style, and in his last paintings, only the stylisation of the figures distinguishes “his” from “his father’s” work.
