GEORGE RADOJČIČ
Inspired by Karel Čapek
Drawings and paintings (2002 – 2018)

The third exhibition of George Radojčič in Artinbox Gallery, this time a selection of his works inspired by Karel Čapek.

Curated by: Nadia Rovderová, Terezie Zemánková

Big and Small Stories of George Radojćić

George Radojćić was born into an artistic family on March 28, 1987 in Sarajevo, as the firstborn son of Czech actress Jana Radojćićová (née Kulendová) and Bosnian director and screenwriter Bora Radojćić. George was born with a mental handicap. At the age of four, he started having epileptic seizures, and the illness began to destroy the developing brain. He was diagnosed with a rare form of epilepsy – Landau-Kleffner syndrome, so for the rest of his life he must be under adult supervision. However, he was also born with an extraordinary artistic talent. From early childhood he preferred drawing and painting not only to playing with other children, but also to eating or relaxing. Finishing drawing or painting a picture always came first. Shortly after George’s birth the family moved from the war-torn Yugoslavia to Jana’s native Czechoslovakia. George’s first preschool age drawings were influenced by the Prague scenery and a stay with his relatives in the Šluknovsko region. The events in the former Yugoslavia left significant traces in George’s sensitive perception; in his work the theme of war or the struggle between good and evil often reoccurs...

Elementary education in Prague was initially a very painful experience for George. Because of his specific nature he experienced misunderstanding, harassment and bullying from classmates and teachers, which in the first class brought on his partial paralysis. He had changed schools three times before he finally found a haven in the third class at the Church School of Ursuline Sisters, which his younger brother and sister joined as well. His spontaneous nature and direct, immediate behaviour were here met with understanding from the teachers, and his classmates accepted him, too. Between 1997 and 2003, they organized several school exhibitions for George at the Gallery on the Stairs. Here he met his assistant and then a long-time friend Stefan Berec, who took sensitive care of him, helped him with his work and education. He introduced him to, among other things, the work of Karel Čapek, with whom George fell in love. Čapek captivated George with his perception of good and evil, inner moral strength and compassion for human suffering. Later George created a remarkable extensive series of illustrations for Čapek’s work. At the age of eleven, George incurred deteriorating of cognitive functions and was for a longer time hospitalized at the Neurology Department of Motol Hospital in Prague. Despite all the hardship, he with faith still kept a positive outlook on life, trying to forgive and understand. This approach to life is also heavily represented in his paintings. After the end of the civil war in the former Yugoslavia, the family started again to travel in the summer to Croatian Murvica on the island of Brač. Here originated the first thematically compact series of colour drawings and paintings of the sea, countryside and villages. George never looked for inspiration intricately, he made do with what he saw around him, with themes of everyday life, or the virtual world of the mass media or computer games. He painted his loved ones, but also literary or historic figures, personalities from the world of politics, biblical scenes, figures of saints, demons, angels, and praying figures. In his interpretation the world is both harmonious and violent, fascinating and mundane, or even lapidary. But never boring.

In June 2004, George completed compulsory schooling and this turning point in his life was accompanied by the first major exhibition of the talented young man out of school, at the prestigious gallery “New Hall” in Voršilská street in Prague. The seventeen year-old George was subsequently informally, without the right to a diploma, accepted to the Prague Art Academy in the graphic studio of Doc. George Lindovský. Here his 
talent found appreciation, his confidence grew, he was admired and protected, learning new art techniques. Yet, the tension was rising and some wondered how it was possible that one who could not properly write, read, count, or think maturely, had a creative gift. Then there was a conflict with a classmate and George could not be left unattended. Since then he always had to go to the studios of the Academy accompanied by his mother. This gradually became too time demanding. At that time, the family moved to the outskirts of Prague in Slivenec, to a house with a garden. During reconstruction they built a room for George – a studio. George left the Academy and began working at home. Limited by the illness he remained dependent on the help of his mother – she helped him stretch canvases and coat them, crop pencils, taught him to overcome the handicap, fight and not lose hope. In 2010, George began to go to a vocational school for disabled pupils. He was happy that he could do sports, repeat reading, writing and mathematics, he went on trips and kept working. In 2013, he had a successful solo exhibition “George’s Gardens and More” at the Artinbox gallery in the centre of Prague, then he, represented by the gallery, participated in the art festival Art Prague in Kafka House in Prague. His reward was a trip to Rome and Assisi, and then the first time ever airplane flight – to Lourdes. Several smaller solo and group exhibitions followed.
George became permanently represented by the Artinbox gallery, and in spring 2015 his second solo exhibition entitled “Stories” was held here. A variant of this exhibition with an emphasis on spiritual subjects was shown in early summer of 2015 in the ambulatory of St. Ignatius Church during the Days of Faith. In this church George is now a ministrant every Sunday. In 2015 and 2016 during Lent, George’s canvas “The Temptation of Jesus in the Wilderness” was exhibited in the Chapel of All Souls at St. Ignatius Church – the parishioners thus became aware that their ministrant has a “gift”. George also began to exhibit regularly in Slivenec’s Church of All Saints during the “Church Nights”, and this way found more friends. When going for a walk with his dog, people on the street say hi, talk to him, invite him to tea, or to the cinema. It is very important to George, he is no longer a “nameless fool”. Artistic work has thus brought George not only joy of creating, but subsequently also fully-fledged acceptance into the community. His paintings bring joy and hope to us.

Nadia Rovderová