Jindřich Bílek
——1950 – 2014——

For centuries, music and the fine arts have been accompanying man and at the same time living in mutual symbiosis. Many outstanding musicians have been able to greatly influence the visual arts in their expression, and we also know from history how many well-known painters at moments of rest reached for a musical instrument or sat down to the black-white ivory piano keys or home organ. In their souls, they were often able to transform that harmony of tones into two-dimensional images full of colours and valers.

In order to understand the work of Jindřich Bílek in all its multi-layered forms, it is very important for us to know, among other things, the artist’s origin, birthplace, roots from which he came, experiences that influenced his exploration of the world and helped him to shape his personal qualities. His precious interconnection of a life full of tones and a world of colours is undoubtedly a key point, important for knowing this distinct painter, constantly changing in his paintings.

Jindřich Bílek wasn’t definitely one of the artists whose life we could talk about in a colourful way or with a dignified pathos. although otherwise nice and friendly, in nature with a sense of humour, he himself was very careful in protecting his privacy, so he only opened himself only to his closest ones. Nevertheless, with his painting, he offers us a great opportunity to get at least a little closer to him as a human. Only in them can we investigate the uniqueness of the painter’s mental life.

He was born on September 19, 1950 in Klatovy to a family in which fine art played a large role, his father was a professional artist. Jindřich Bílek graduated from the local grammar school and as he was intensely keen on music since his youth, his parents decided he should devote himself to music for all his life, so they directed him to the Prague Conservatory, where he studied cello. In one interview, he admitted years later that he had virtually no time for fine art thanks to his intensive study. It was only after the conservatory that he devoted himself to painting more and more to find out that God was probably more generous in giving him his artistic talent He studied fine art at the Faculty of Education in Pilsen, which “technically put him on his feet”; this was extremely important for him.

In his professional life he was able to interconnect both fields by his exceptional talent and today he is one of the leading personalities of the West Bohemian region. For years he worked as a music teacher at the Elementary Music School in his birthplace in Klatovy. Here he also lived and had an atelier without embezzling his pupils, with whom he devoted himself intensively to music. He played in a quartet, in an orchestra, performed at his own vernissages or those of his friends’ exhibitions, but he exhibited himself as well.

Not only in many other galleries, especially in West Bohemian towns, but also abroad. Over the years, he has presented his work at almost a hundred solo and group exhibitions in the Czech Republic, in Germany mainly in Bavaria, which was almost at his fingertips from his hometown in Klatovy. He also exhibited in Austria, Holland, France and shortly before his death he also had an exhibition in Monaco in Monte Carlo. At home in the Czech Republic, he regularly participated in the extremely prestigious parade of the Týn nad Vltavou Courtyards, where he represented the entire Pilsen Region as a painter. He himself initiated a number of joint exhibitions of Klatovy artists, which would have never been organized without him: they exhibited in partner towns in the Netherlands in Heemskerk, and in addition twice in Germany, in Cham and Sulzbach-Rosenberg, he also succeeded in Besancon, France, where his work received very positive feedback. Then he was the only artist to represent Czech fine art at the International Exhibition in Marseille 2012. He was also selected by an expert jury as a distinguished Czech artist to participate in an exhibition in Chisinau, Moldova, which brought together distinguished artists from 34 countries.