Gehinom

A deep relationship with biblical stories, which had been visible in Piesen’s landscapes in the 1950s, is revealed in many abstract paintings produced in 1960 which were made in three mutually penetrating sequences. Even after he emigrated in 1965, the artist did not interrupt his work on the cycles Magmas and especially Spaces of Nonexistence and Gehinnoms. Unlike the expressive pole of the Czech Art Informel production, meditativeness is typical of Piesen searching for spiritual light values in painting. In the inner glow of the Gehinnoms, the dramatic Old Testament story of the sons of Hinnom, burnt by God’s anger, thus becomes a contemplation of suffering as well as redemption and reaching to the higher spiritual order.