The painter, sculptor, and graphic artist František Mertl was born on 16 March 1930 in Třebíč. After graduating from the Higher School of Arts and Crafts in Brno (1948–1952), he continued his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague (under Professor Miloslav Holý). In 1956, during a study stay in Italy (Perugia), he met French student Jacqueline Sussan, his future wife and lifelong companion. Two years later, he emigrated via West Berlin to France, where he lived and worked first in Nice and later in Vence. Since 1958, he has been known on the European art scene under the name FRANTA.
In the south of France, he encountered the works of artists such as Pablo Picasso, Marc Chagall, Max Ernst, Jean Dubuffet, Antoni Tàpies, among others. He later collaborated with some of them—among them, let us mention Roberto Matta and Eduardo Chillida—and also maintained close friendships, such as with the writer Graham Greene. Franta held his first solo exhibition in Paris in 1960 and soon after secured a permanent place among the representatives of the French new figuration. His paintings depict the painful miracle of birth, bodies crushed by war conflicts, but also humans connected with nature—people whose existence cannot be separated from the state of contemporary civilization.
A whole series of paintings draws attention to the abuse of technology and the danger of a world overwhelmed by the waste of overproduction and consumerism. On the other hand, many of his works are inspired by his experiences on the African continent, where the artist discovered the natural beauty of the human being—someone who does not need the conveniences of the modern world to exist.
Franta’s paintings, drawings, sculptures, and prints are now part of nearly sixty important public collections around the world (including New York’s Guggenheim Museum, Brooklyn Museum, and Bronx Museum of the Arts, as well as Nagoya and Tokyo in Japan). In France—his second home—his works are held by institutions such as the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Centre Georges Pompidou Paris, Musée Picasso Antibes, and more than twenty other public museums and foundations. In the Czech Republic, his works are represented in the collections of the National Gallery in Prague, the Czech Museum of Fine Arts in Prague, the Moravian Gallery in Brno, the Brno City Museum at Špilberk Castle, and the Vysočina Museum in Třebíč.
At the end of 2014, a permanent FRANTA Exposition was opened in Třebíč as a gift from the artist to his hometown.
The exhibition at the Gallery of Fine Arts in Ostrava is a symbolic tribute to the artist’s significant life anniversary this year. Franta is introduced to the Ostrava public as a person of inexhaustible life energy—a painter and sculptor, a brilliant colorist, an exceptional draftsman, and a creator deeply engaged with the problems of contemporary times. Although the second half of the 20th century offered a vast array of artistic movements, he never left the realm of figurative art. He persevered—his priority was always the quality of the work in direct relation to the power of its spiritual message.
The significance of Franta’s decades-long artistic efforts has long since surpassed the borders of France and the European continent, securing a firm place in the historical context of art over the past fifty years.

Marie Dohnalov

Translated with the help of GPT chat.

Curators: Marie Dohnalová, Jiří Jůza             
Texts: Marie Dohnalová                                 
Grafiphic design: Jiří Šigut, CONCEPT
Realisation: Dominika Dworoková, Zdeněk Fedák, Jiří Jůza, Jan Kudrna, Josef Mladějovský, Gabriela Pelikánová, Jana Sedláková, Renata Skřebská, Vladimír Šulc
Translation:  Alliance française Ostrava, Kateřina Mertha
Promotion: Kateřina Mertha, Jana Šrubařová
Educational program: Marcela Pelikánová, Jana Sedláková