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Oil on wood panel. Signed lower right: “Kren Jan”. Jan Kren, a native of Myslibor, a village near Telc, decided to go work at the family farm shortly after he left secondary school at the age of 14. He had drawn and painted since he was a child, initially influenced by Mikolás Ales. He was interested in philosophy and science, especially physics; he conducted experiments cross-breeding plants and collected minerals. During the war he was a forced laborer in Austria for several months. In 1956 he was forced to enter the local United Cooperative Farm, where he first worked as a livestock specialist and was later a regular member. At the local cultural center he held exhibitions of his paintings and talks about art, philosophy, theoretical physics, biology, ecology and minerology. He gained most scientific information from "Vesmír" and "Živa" magazines, and from Universitas magazine after he met Professor Smarda. He formed the MT art group with Václav Ondrácek, Jan Urbanec and Josef Závodsky. Kren wrote his memoirs, thoughts on philosophy, and corresponded with a number of people. During his lifetime he created nearly one thousand oil paintings on hardboard, thus creating an original artistic-philosophical oeuvre that brings folk art together with ideas about how the universe functions and man's position within it. It also includes poetry and a unique sense of humor commenting on village life under real socialism. He donated his large collection of paintings to the Town of Telc (permanent exhibition in the Romanesque-Gothic tower of the Church of the Holy Spirit).