The 1980s Generation

Richard Adam has presented his collection in its entirety several times, the last presentation being divided into three by the decade in which the paintings were created. This is one of the possible approaches, which in the case of the first group – works of art of the 1980s – is further substantiated. This period represents an already closed chapter of Czech art and in addition, features a relatively uniform character compared to later development. To a considerable extent, it was invoked by the joint action of artists opposing the then art practice, with respect to both art production approved by the then regime and the opposing neo-avantgarde and its moralist attitudes.
The new generation was concerned about painting as such, about opening up to the world, communication, exhibiting without restraint and humiliation. It commenced its activities with private Confrontations; the first major public exhibition took place in 1988, in which members of the newly established Stubborn Ones group were also represented. This group became a symbol of the new artistic approaches, usually associated with postmodernism.
The 1980s Generation started with wild expressive painting, represented in Richard Adam's collection mainly through early works by Vladimír Skrepl, while expressiveness remained typical for Martin Mainer and Otto Placht. Other painters were more moderate in their expression and turned to myths, archetypes, archaic art, the past and Christian symbolism (Jaroslav Róna, Jiří David, Petr Nikl, Tomáš Císařovský, Jiří Petrbok, Daniel Balabán, Jiří Žáček).
A specific place is occupied by Stanislav Diviš, Petr Kvíčala and Jan Pištěk, who focus on painting through geometric symbols, Vladimír Kokolia, who after expressive grotesque paintings turned to layered gestic structures where space and time are important, the conceptual Jiří Kovanda, the minimalist Petr Veselý and Jan Merta reducing picture to a single stylized subject in a monochrome background, Václav Stratil with his hatched paintings and Antonín Střížek, who developed the concept of a "beautiful picture" brilliantly balancing at the boundary of kitsch. The common feature was the rehabilitation of the picture and its possible new ways. With his focus on painting, Richard Adam could not have chosen a better start to build his collection than the 1980s with their returns to painting conception. The 1980s paintings were presented by Richard Adam at an aggregate exhibition, which took place at the Adam Gallery in 2010.