Czech Painter 1929 Josef Jíra Turnov – 2005 Malá Skála “paris Market”

Czech painter Josef Jíra 1929 Turnov – 2005 Malá Skála "Marché De Paris"
Oil on wood,
Size: 30 x 40 cm
Signed lower right J. Jíra,
Label on the back.
Framed.
Josef Jíra (11 October 1929, Turnov – 15 June 2005, Malá Skála u Turnova) was a Czech painter, graphic artist and illustrator.

He studied at the vocational school of jewellers in Turnov (from 1943), then at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague (from 1946), first in the preparatory class of Karel Minář, after a year he was accepted to the school of Miloslav Holý. During the next two years of study, his teachers were Otakar Nejedlý and Vlastimil Rada. At first he earned his living doing advertising graphics, later (mainly to support his family) he accepted commissions for book illustrations. However, he continued to paint and his first success came in 1955, when he received a one-year scholarship for the painting The Comedians (the painting is now in the Pushkin Museum). Jíra was one of the founding members of the M 57 group and participated in all its exhibitions (1959, 1960, 1962, 1969 and 1970). Josef Jíra took the opportunity to travel more in the late 1950s and especially in the 1960s. He participated in the World's Fair Expo 58 in Brussels and in the following years he visited Leningrad, Paris, Egypt, Italy, Greece, Spain, Sweden, Cuba, Armenia, Georgia and many other countries. All these trips had a significant influence on his work.