Ústí nad Labem is often seen as a place without a significant influence on the development of contemporary art. However, upon closer examination, it is often possible to find numerous interesting connections that at the very least challenge this view. The story of Jan Merta (born in 1952), one of the key figures in contemporary Czech painting, can be seen as an example that demonstrates that this cultural periphery in the past has offered and perhaps still offers important impulses for the artistic growth of undeniable creative personalities and for the overall atmosphere of the art scene. The exhibition by this artist at the House of Art in Ústí nad Labem, titled Lidová škola umění thematically grows from memories associated with the period of his adolescence, which he lived through in this city between 1966 and 1972, along with frequent visits from his parents who lived here until 1989 because his father, Hynek Merta, served as a pastor in the Czech Brethren Evangelical Church.

References to the deeply embedded past in the furrows of Ústí, however, form only the initiating concept of the exhibition, intertwining with events currently being experienced. In the presented collection, initiated by several juvenile paintings that the author created precisely in Ústí nad Labem, and also a small set of photographs by Lukáš Jasanský and Martin Polák "documenting" Merta's Ústí realities, we encounter works inspired by his family background, environmental concerns, and, not least, the current Russian war frenzy in Ukraine. Although the more recent conflicts of the contemporary world, which Jan Merta tries to confront with focused contemplation embedded in the lines, surfaces, and depths of his paintings, may seem distant from his upbringing in Ústí nad Labem, it is clear that the opposite is true. Perhaps the strongest continuity bridging these periods of his life emerges in the form of a thematic bond, connecting his youth with the concerns and reflections of his current artistic work.

The surface in the pair of paintings, whose central motif is an unstable spherical object placed on a base created by delicate drapery or melting ice, is a small paper drawing from 1970 titled Dream and a monumental painting titled Dream of Democracy from 2017-2023. This programmatic painting, approaching apocalyptic environmental and social destruction, serves as a meditation by the artist on the repeated failures of human civilization. It does so by citing the motif of youthful features, as if recalling his experience associated with the ecological exploitation of the Sudeten region, accompanied by suffocating toxic mists lingering in the Elbe Valley.

Similarly, the intimate painting Mobilization (Postsuprematic Breakdown of Atonement Cross) from 2022, which confronts the reference to Russian avant-garde art with the brutality of the war that Russia is waging against a kindred nation, can evoke a similar generational disillusionment present in the atmosphere of the Soviet occupation of Czechoslovakia experienced by Jan Merta during his stay in Ústí. The canvases, in the truest sense, engaged and with characteristic "Merta" dedication expressing socially relevant themes, are complemented in the exhibition concept at the House of Art in Ústí nad Labem by introspective portraits of family members, deeply connected to memories of the author's days in Ústí (Self-Portrait with a Military Rank, 1997-2006; Tom, 2007-2008).

As is characteristic of Jan Merta, the selection of paintings included in the exhibition collection can be seen as the creation of a story from individual elements (specific canvases, drawings, or objects) so that his sensitive and yet uncompromising commentary on what he is currently experiencing, both in the intimacy of his own life and in the rapid flow of the surrounding world, is revealed before the viewer.