Ivan Ouhel: Geometry and Light, Incorniciarte, Verona, 2013

 Even though his family background and musical talent seemed to destine Ivan Ouhel to pursue a career in music, he was drawn to fine arts from his childhood. In 1968 he was accepted to the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague for his remarkable artistic talent In the fifth year of his studies, he won the "Academy's Studio Award" thanks to which he was able to travel to Italy for a month's scholarship. Together with several student colleagues, he travelled the length and breadth of Tuscany, where he had the opportunity to observe, closely at the time, the works of Trecento and Quattrocento masters, especially of Giotto, Masaccio, Piero della Francesca and Fra Angelico whose masterly painting enchanted the young painter completely. He admired their illusive simplicity and, at the same time, their brilliant work with space and colour. The strongest experience he had, was a visit to a cemetery chapel in the small Tuscan village of Monterchi, where Madonna by Piero de la Francesca had been painted. This painting has been moved to an independent museum and the site only features a copy now, but it still takes visitors aback by both its simplicity and monumentality.
It is no wonder that Ivan Ouhel fell in love with Italy and it seems that the country is not indifferent to him either. Ouhel exhibited twice at the Venice Biennale, in 1984 and then again in 1988, when eight of his large canvases were exhibited and received with acclaim. Ivan Neumann, the then director of the Czech Museum of Fine Arts, Prague, gave Ouhel a contact for Petr Porçal, an art historian of Czech origin living in Florence, who introduced him to many local artists and art historians, including Andre B. del Guercio and also the painter and doctor Mimmo Roselli, who became his close friend. The two even shared several exhibitions. Although their artistic expressions were seemingly different, both artists had a lot in common from the very beginning, as shown by several of their joint exhibitions. Of all of these we should mention the exhibition in "Nová síň" in Prague in 1993, and another two years later in San Salvatore al Monte in Florence. For several years , they also shared the same Roselli's studio in Bagno e Ripolli near Florence in the summer months.
Ivan Ouhel likes visiting Italy and the country welcomes him with open arms. This year's exhibition of his work in the Incorniciarte gallery in Verona, entitled Geometry and Light, clearly shows that. The name comes from a yet unfinished cycle of paintings of which a part was exhibited in Příbram in the end of the last year; part of it is exhibited in Trutnov at the time of the creation of this text and a small fraction will also be presented to the Italian audience in Verona. Ouhel is often considered a landscape painter, even though rather than actual landscape, his work captures the essence and impressions of landscape – light impressions, colour compositions and structure. In recent years, he has been transforming landscapes into simple geometric shapes which he has combined rather graphically at times. At the same time, he blends these perfect geometric constructions with spontaneous, relaxed painting, which brings life and excitement to the landscapes.