jan vičar | black tears

Graphic art as a memory notebook. An imprint of nocturnal breath. A cut made through layers of material and time. The Black Tears exhibition presents a collection of works by graphic artist Jan Vičar, inspired primarily by his African stays and experiences. This distinctive solitaire of the contemporary Czech graphic scene, winner of the Mario Avati Award from the French Academy, the Vladimír Boudník Award, and laureate of many other accolades, brings to the Aleš South Bohemian Gallery an artistic statement that is dark yet deeply communicative.

Vičar’s works oscillate between diary entries and dreamlike visions. Time condenses in his woodcuts and linocuts—past, present, and mythical dimensions intertwine. Each print is a trace of a journey that is not only geographical but primarily internal. In his work, Africa becomes an initiatory landscape—not described, but re-experienced. Vičar’s graphics are not illustrations of experiences. They are records of the clash of cultural layers, the corporeality of the landscape, and a presence that disquiets and fascinates. And it is this very clash that is imprinted into the very substance of his works.

The author's artistic language grows from classical graphic techniques, especially woodcut and linocut, but pushes them far beyond the commonly understood boundaries of the medium. Vičar often works with the matrix and the print as two equivalent entities, with the resulting form always being an open experiment. Using a press of his own design, he creates monumental formats in which graphics become space, rhythm, and object. His work resonates with the legacy of old masters of European graphic art—from Dürer to Goya—but also with the Czech tradition of expressive line and existential depth, as known from the work of Josef Váchal. Like Váchal, Vičar connects poetry, magic, and artisanal discipline into one whole.

His graphics act as artifacts—as if they were etched directly onto the surface of time. Records of human experience, pain, transgression, and silent awe. Each sheet is a testimony that needs no punchline. Instead of a story, an image arrives. Instead of a message, a layer, texture, rhythm arrives.

The Black Tears exhibition presents Jan Vičar as an artist who remains faithful to traditional media but simultaneously handles them freely and radically. His work proves that classical graphic art—based on manual labor, rhythm, and material—can still be monumental, current, and deeply existential today.

Jan Kunze