Jan Pištěk (*1961)

Automobile and Brown Trout, 1980s, oil on canvas, signature not identified, on the reverse, an inscription by the son of the painting’s first owner, painting dimensions 55.5 × 65.5 cm, overall framed dimensions 70 × 79.5 cm.

Provenance: The work comes from the collection of Ing. Jaroslav Los (1924–1988), an enthusiast of angling and sports cars, who commissioned the painting directly from the artist.

The authenticity of the work was consulted with and confirmed by the artist.

Expert opinion: PhDr. Rea Michalová, Ph.D.

Excerpt from the expert opinion:
The painting under consideration, Automobile and Brown Trout, is an original and high-quality work by Jan Pištěk, splendidly depicting the world of two distinctly masculine passions. Pištěk is an important figure in contemporary Czech painting of the middle generation, who began to establish himself at the turn of the 1980s and 1990s. His distinctive painterly style, which has passed through many phases, evolved into a harmonious fusion of realist and abstract expression, into a unique symbiosis of reality and fiction.
Although an early work, Automobile and Brown Trout is already a fully mature and confident painting, which—both artistically and in its subject matter—leaves no doubt, to use a Czech saying, that “the apple does not fall far from the tree.” Here, the son of Theodor Pištěk, a master of absolute formal perfection fascinated by the world of motor racing and Formula cars, which he knew intimately as an active driver, unmistakably reveals his lineage. In this painting, executed with assured realist.