10 THE ART OBSERVER June 2007 9 Questions for Jiri Borsky By Miriam McManners Born in 1945 Jiri Borsky lived in the Czech Republic until the age of 15. He then moved to Prague where he resided and studied for 8 years. During this time he was influenced by images of both con- temporary artists of the day and medieval artwork. In 1968 Jiri moved to England. He met and married Patricia Garner who encouraged him to give up his office work in order to paint. Jiri began study- ing art at Staffordshire University and graduated in 1979. Since then he has painted prolifically and exhibited all over the UK. He is a regular exhibitor at the Wendy J Levy Gallery in Didsbury. 1. What began your career as an artist? They say one does not choose to be an artist, it chooses you. So - when did it choose me? At five, when I was rather looking forward to rainy days spent at kitchen table with a box of crayons? At fifteen when I began to frequent exhibitions in Prague’s galleries and felt the strong urge to paint myself? At thirty, when backed by my wife, I gave up my job in an architects office to pursue paint- ing full time? I have never looked back. 2. Is there anything or anyone that has been a particular influence on your work? The contemporary guys I was lapping up in Prague as a teenager are little known outside the Czech Republic - Jan Zrzavy, to name the most prominent one. I love the medieval panel paintings - we share similar ways of organising pictorial space, without resorting to perspective. Perspective can be a bit boring and is quite restrictive when one wants to tell a story, to “fly”. Sometimes I use so called hierarchic perspective borrowed from the Egyptians - the more important person (say a soloist in a band) is shown bigger than everyone else - very logical to my mind. I have heard people comparing my work to Marc Chagall. I have certainly learned from him, but so I did from hundreds of other painters. And in turn they have themselves learned from others. Painting (as I comprehend it) is to a large degree a collective effort steeped in tradition. We build on the past discoveries and eventually find our own ‘voice’ and contribute our own share. 3. Your work has featured on the cover of Prague Jazz - has this or any type of music inspired your work? I do like jazz, folk music and some classical composers - Mozart, Schubert, Beethoven, Dvorak... However when I paint I prefer total silence. 4. What is the extent of your relationship with Keele University? Do you enjoy this aspect of your work? I did some part-time teaching there in the last century. In the last 10 or 12 years I no longer teach, I just paint. Keele University has a gallery where I held several successful shows. That is the extent of our relationship. 5. Many of your formative years were spent in Prague - How do you feel the communist regime effected the artistic community within Prague? This is more a question for a political historian. I was far too busy painting, dating girls or pondering the mysteries of the universe in one of Prague’s beer halls or wine cellars with my mates into the early hours of the morning! Seriously though - of course we were aware of certain restrictions imposed by the regime and were envious of the greater freedoms enjoyed by the people in the West. 6. Did you anticipate that the Prague Spring would enable greater creativity? Prague Spring brought with it many hopes, only to be cruelly dashed by the Soviet invasion in August 1968. 7. Do you still have links with the Czech Republic. What is the creative community like there today? I visit Prague about once a year. I feel now a mere tourist there, one who can speak the language and knows the layout of the streets. The contemporary paintings there on the whole seem to reflect the fashionable trends evident elsewhere. I am not much into fashionable trends, really. 8. Have any present or past artists particularly influenced you and how? One of my recent discoveries is Botero. For a long time I was aware of him peripherally, images used on greeting cards. Only lately I discovered his more serious side, his painterly reaction to contemporary inhumane events; evaluated his real weight. Here internet plays a very beneficial role. I spend many an evening trawling for interesting images of paint- ings or ceramics. Perhaps panning would be a better metaphor, for there is a huge amount of plain dull sand and fool’s gold to go through before one finds a real nugget. 9. Do you work from home or from a studio as part of a group of artists? Do you feel this has an effect upon your work? 26 years ago our son’s arrival comman- deered the spare bedroom I used for painting. Ever since 1981 I had a separate studio away from the house. I go to work (often 7 days a week) and in the evening I come home back from work, leaving all the unresolved problems in the studio. I like it that way. However, it is a solitary profession. There are days I do not speak a word as the day is long. Pat, my wife has a job where she speaks all the time, so in the evening she loves to fall silent behind a good book. Private Views then can be a bit bewildering, such a contrast: suddenly so many people want to speak with me, usually all in the same time.