CZECH CONTEMPORARY ART GUIDE Eva Kmentová – Hands II, 1968 Supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic

© Institut umění – Divadelní ústav (Arts and Theatre Institute) First edition ISBN 978-80-7008-294-2

All rights of the publication reserved CONTENT

INTRODUCTION 9

ABOUT THE CZECH REPUBLIC 9

ABOUT THE ARTS AND THEATRE INSTITUTE 11

CZECH ART OF 20TH AND 21ST CENTURIES 13 1900–64 13 Founders of modern Czech art The Interwar avant-garde Czech art under the fascist government Art under communism The unoffi cial scene in the 1950s

1964–89 18 Czech Art of the 1960s New sensitivity and new fi guration Action and conceptual art of the 1960s Normalisation The Grey Zone The arrival of postmodernism

FROM 1989 TO THE PRESENT DAY 26 Art after the Velvet Revolution Dispersed concentration of the mid-90s The beginning of the 21st century Current situation

PROFILES OF ARTISTS 41

THEORETICIANS AND CURATORS 51

PROFILES OF THEORETICIANS AND CURATORS 53

MUSEUMS OF ART 56

EXHIBITON HALLS AND NON-COMMERCIAL GALLERIES 59

PRIVATE COMMERCIAL GALLERIES 63

ART SCHOOLS 65

ART EDUCATION AND RESEARCH 67

ART PRIZES 70

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAFY 73

INDEX 75 9 INTRODUCTION / ABOUT THE CZECH REPUBLIC CZECH CONTEMPORARY ART GUIDE 10

INTRODUCTION ABOUT THE CZECH REPUBLIC

This Guide to Contemporary Czech Art is the latest The CR in numbers wars Czechoslovakia was a democratic state with initiative of the Czech President Václav Havel, the in a series of publications devoted to diff erent as- a highly developed economy. In September 1938 Japanese philanthropist Yohei Sasakawa, and the pects of Czech culture. Both the concept and con- The Czech Republic is a landlocked country with Czechoslovakia was forced to accept the Munich Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel. Since 2000 tents of this book are the result of the collabora- a surface area of 78,865 m2 lying in the centre of Agreement. On 14 March 1939 Slovakia declared the Forum 2000 Foundation has been supporting tion of its fi ve-member editorial board made up of Europe. The country borders Poland, Germany, independence, and the next day the German army the international NGO Market. Lucie Drdová, Edith Jeřábková, Pavlína Morganová, Austria and Slovakia, and is currently divided into took control of the remaining territory under Jan Skřivánek and Silvie Šeborová, who between 14 regions. Since 2004 the CR has been a member the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. The Since 2004 in Prague especially several initiatives them cover the roles of art historian, theoretician, of the EU. At the end of 2011 there were 10.5 mil- communist period started in 1948. The country have arisen in ad hoc response to critical situa- curator, gallerist and editor. lion people living in the CR, broken down by age became a totalitarian state and part of the Soviet tions in the sphere of culture brought on by cuts as follows: 1,541,000 aged 0-14: 7,263,000 aged bloc. Civil society structures were destroyed. The in funding, the ignorance of offi cials, corruption, The backbone of the guide is a historical survey 15-64: 1,701,000 aged 65+. Approximately 15% of Velvet Revolution took place on 17 November failure to adhere to binding concepts approved by of the development of Czech art from 1900 to the the population has a university education and the 1989 and Czechoslovakia changed its political the bodies of representative democracy, and a lack present day, along with profi les of 40 artists. The proportion is growing. The capital city is Prague regime. Václav Havel became president and later of transparency in the policy and distribution of illustrations included are intended to illuminate with a population of approximately 1,241,000. was the fi rst president of the new Czech state, funding. Another problem is the lack of commu- aspects of the text and off er a condensed under- In 2011 GDP per capita was CZK 365,961 (CZK/EUR when in 1993 the country was peacefully divided nication with the professional community. One of standing of the development of Czech art. The = 25.1) and infl ation was 1.9%. In 2012 the country into two independent states: the Czech Republic the boldest recent initiatives is the informal For a guide also lists the most important institutions and had a fl at individual income tax rate of 15% and a and Slovakia. The Czech Republic began joining Cultural Czech Republic. This arose in March 2009 provides links to museums and galleries, theoreti- corporate tax rate of 19%. Pension and investment Western European political structures. In 1999 it in direct response to drastic fi nancial cuts in the cians and curators, media, art schools, prizes and funds pay 5% corporate tax. In 1992 the corporate became a member of NATO and in 2004 it joined sphere of culture. a bibliography. Individual entries include a short tax rate was 45% as compared to the present the European Union and signed the Schengen commentary and a description of the infrastruc- rate of 19%. The minimum wage in 2010 was CZK Agreement. ture and historical development of the sphere in 8,000 and the average monthly wage was CZK question. 24,436. This fi gure was CZK 22,233 in the cultural sector. The current unemployment rate is approxi- Cultural sector The breadth, variety and potential of the Czech art mately 8.6%. scene exceed the scope of this publication. Please The central body of the public administration regard this guide as a primer pointing the way in the fi eld of culture is the Ministry of Culture, forward to further knowledge and appreciation. History in brief which supports the arts and cultural activities and The reproductions, lists of institutions and artists’ looks after the cultural heritage. It oversees 30 profi les are an invitation to familiarise yourself in The history of the Czech state goes back to the state-managed organisations and one benevolent greater depth with Czech art, either in the Czech 9th century (Greater Moravia) and the 10th century organisation. The Ministry of Culture is responsible Republic or abroad, where older and now contem- (the fi rst Bohemian State). Historically, the periods for the management of fund fi nances. However, in porary generations of artists are being displayed of greatest political and cultural infl uence were in 2009, for example, public expenditure on culture more and more often and becoming a fi xture of the 13th and 14th centuries (the last Premyslids, as a share of GDP was only 0.74%. The regional many foreign collections, museums and galleries. Charles IV) and in the 16th century (Rudolf II). In and local authorities also play a role in cultural 1526 the Habsburg dynasty ascended to the Czech policy. Culture is included in the Development throne and retained it thereafter, incorporating Programmes of all 14 regions. Cultural policy is of the land into the Habsburg Empire. In the late course also shaped by civil society and initiatives 18th century the fi rst stirrings began of the Czech that have emerged over time in the Czech Repub- National Revival, an attempt to gain political power lic. Non-profi t organisations play a very important through parties representing the ethnic Czech role. Since 1989 these have taken the form of civil population. In 1918, after the First World War, associations, not-for-profi t companies, endow- centuries as provinces of the Habsburg Empire ment funds, and religious organisations involved in (from 1620) ended when Bohemia and Moravia the provision of educational and cultural services. joined with Slovakia to form Czechoslovakia, an The majority of these are civil associations. In 1996 independent nation state. Between the two world Forum 2000 was founded in Prague as a joint 11 ABOUT THE ARTS INSTITUTE CZECH CONTEMPORARY ART GUIDE 12

ABOUT THE ARTS INSTITUTE

The Institute was founded as an autonomous de- THE ARTS AND THEATRE INSTITUTE partment of the Theatre Institute in 2005. Its mis- RUNS THE FOLLOWING sion is to develop and raise the social prestige of INFORMATION WEBSITES: the arts. The Arts Institute supports the exchange DE of information and experience among various art LIBEREC PL disciplines, off ers information and consultancy culturenet.cz off ers up-to-date information ÚSTÍ services, organises educational activities, and pre- regarding culture and the arts, provides informa- NAD LABEM sents and promotes Czech art abroad. tion about grants and job opportunities in the HRADEC fi eld of culture, holds a database on cultural policy KRÁLOVÉ Provides information and consultancy services materials and the possibility of fi nancial support PRAGUE regarding the possibility of fi nancial support for ar- for projects, and runs a Czech-English database of CHEB

tistic and cultural projects from Czech and foreign cultural stakeholders. OSTRAVA KUTNÁ PARDUBICE sources (with the emphasis on European Union PILSEN HORA resources). czechmusic.org provides information about The institute runs the Artists in Residency Pro- people, organisations and musical life in the Czech OLOMOUC gramme, which coordinates reciprocal residencies Republic in both Czech and English. for artists, and a residency programme in the Egon Schiele Art Centre in Česky Krumlov for young art- czechlit.cz promotes Czech literature abroad and ZLÍN BRNO ists working in the Czech Republic. in the Czech Republic. It provides information on ČESKÉ It also works on projects from the fi eld of cultural contemporary Czech authors and their works. BUDĚJOVICE policy, e.g. The Concept for More Effi cient Support for the Arts 2007–2013 (2006), An Input Analysis czechdance.info promotes Czech dance on an the Cultural Sector (2008), Study of the State, international level. The portal contains a calendar Structure, Conditions and Financing of Arts in of events, a database of all active bodies covering the Czech Republic (2011), The Social-Economic all genres, and publishes documents relating to the SK Potential of the Cultural and Creative Industries in situation on the Czech dance scene. AT the Czech Republic (2011) and Czech Cultural and Creative Industries Mapping (2011). The institute theatre.cz off ers news translated into English, the organises educational activities in the form of Czech Theatre Today newsletter published three seminars and publications, especially in the fi eld of times a year, a virtual study of ATI´s materials arts management and cultural policy. It promotes accessible online, a commentary on Czech theatre and presents Czech art abroad. production, and facts about Czech theatre.

Contact: Arts and Theatre Institute Celetna 17 CZ-110 00 Prague 1

T +420 224 809 134 www.idu.cz 13 CZECH ART OF THE 20TH AND 21ST CENTURIES CZECH CONTEMPORARY ART GUIDE 14

CZECH ART 1900–64 Founders of modern Czech art the modern is clearly visible if we compare the Municipal House with the Cubist architecture of the At the beginning of the 20th century the Czech The exciting transformation of traditional art into House of the Black Madonna, built by Josef Gočár, OF THE 20TH lands were part of the Austria-Hungarian Empire. what we think of as modern art only took place a member of the Group of Fine Artists, only a few The largest Czech cities, such as Prague and Brno, on the Czech scene in the fi rst decade of the 20th years after the Municipal Building was opened and AND 21ST CENTURIES were simply small islands of culture on the map of century. The exhibition of Edvard Munch provided in the same location. The impact that Cubism had a multinational realm covering European terri- the impulse for the birth of Czech expressionism. on the Czech scene was also due to the infl uence tory from the former Yugoslavia, via Austria and Young artists of the up-and-coming generation, of the art historian and collector Vincenc Kramář, Hungary, the Czech lands and Slovakia, to Northern such as Emil Filla and Bohumil Kubišta, were awe- who in the early years of the 20th century had the Poland and Ukraine. Thanks to its richly diverse struck by Munch’s expressiveness, the simplifi ca- prescience to buy up works by Pablo Picasso and history, its rise to prominence in medieval times tion and distortion of form, and the psychological Georges Braque. His activities led to the creation under the government of Charles IV, the Holy Ro- impact of colours. In 1908 they formed the group of a unique collection of modern French art within man Emperor, the Hussite protestant revolt, and its Osma / Eight and exhibited what were shocking the region of Central Europe and later to the Na- subsequent fl owering during the baroque period, paintings within the Prague context of the time. tional Gallery in Prague itself. Prague was always an important cultural centre at However, the interest of this founding genera- the heart of Europe. In 1799 the Academy of Fine tion very quickly turned toward Cubism. In 1910 Arts was founded in Prague, which at the turn of Bohumil Kubišta encountered the Cubist paint- The interwar avant-garde the 19th and 20th centuries played host to many ings of Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque when Czech and German artists belonging to a variety of helping to organise an exhibition of modern French The First World War was one of the most extensive associations. One of the most important of these art for the Mánes Gallery. In paintings such as military confl icts in human history. Among other was the Mánes Union of Fine Arts, which system- Zátiší s nálevkou / Still Life with Funnel (1910) he things it led to the dissolution of Austria-Hungary atically ensured that the Czech art scene main- combined an expressionist style with Cubist forms and the birth of an independent Czechoslovakia. tained its links with the outside world. The Union in an unusual way, thus anticipating the shift in the As a consequence, despite the devastating eff ects organised an exhibition in Prague of the work of founding generation of modern Czech art toward of the confl ict and subsequent economic crisis, the August Rodin in 1902 and of Edvard Munch in 1905. Cubism. As well as Bohumil Kubišta we fi nd the period between the First and Second World Wars [1] A view of the exhibition of 20th and 21st century Czech art The fi rst of these exhibitions provided an important best examples of Czech Cubist-expressionism saw Czech culture and national pride fl ourish. In at Veletržní Palace, the National Gallery, photo © 2013 National stimulus for the development of modern Czech in the work of the sculptor Otto Guttfreund. His the immediate post-war years there was a clear Gallery in Prague sculpture, while the second was to inspire Czech Úzkost/Anxiety (1911), which depicts a girl wearing move away from radical pre-war directions such as painters. an expression of despair and shrouded in drapery Cubism and expressionism. Czech fi ne art reacted featuring noticeably Cubist pleats, is perhaps the to the trauma of the war by returning to realist, At the start of the century Czech culture was inex- best example of this short phase, and evokes the albeit modern images. Artists took a renewed tricably bound up with Vienna, the capital of the feeling of insecurity prevalent at that time during interest in social issues and humanism predomi- Habsburg Empire. However, as far as fi ne art was the lead-up to the First World War. The spiritual- nates overall. In terms of subject matter priority concerned perhaps the most important relationship ity characteristic of this period is also to be found is given to familiar themes such as family, work was between Prague and Paris. Many Czech artists in the work of the second symbolist generation, and landscape. Formally speaking we fi nd naive looked to the energy of modern French art in an especially in those artists belonging to the group primitivism, magic realism and neo-classicism. The attempt to overcome the academicism, naturalism Sursum. It was in this group that the highly original shocking change in the post-war approach to art and descriptive historicism of the 19th century still graphic designer and mystic Josef Váchal encoun- prevalent at that time. As well as en plein air paint- tered Jan Zrzavý, an equally distinctive artist. ing and illusory realism, impressionism and styles However, the most important coalition at this time associated with the broad current of secession- was the Group of Fine Artists, which included ism featured large at the turn of the century. The Osma and other young progressive painters, Czech painter Alfons Mucha was making a name sculptors and architects with an inclination toward for himself in Paris, and his work became one of Cubism. Within a few short years these developed the outstanding examples of international Art Nou- French Cubism into a universal style. Czech Cub- veau. Paris was also home to František Kupka, who ism was witness not only to the creation of unique became one of the pioneers of abstraction around paintings and sculptures, but architectural projects 1910. In 1912 his monumental, radically abstract and applied art. In autumn 1912 both groups, the canvas Amorfa - Dvojbarevná fuga / Amorpha. Group of Fine Artists and Sursum, held independ- Fugue in Two Colours (1910–1912) was exhibited at ent exhibitions at the Municipal House in Prague. the Salon d’Automne, Paris, and can be seen today The Municipal House was built as a multicultural at the National Gallery in Prague [1]. centre serving the Czech population of Prague. If we wander through its dazzling Art Nouveau and historicising interiors these days it is clear that the founding generation of Czech modern artists

was working against public, mostly conservative [2] Otto Gutfreund – Cubist Bust, 1912-13, bronze, 65×50 cm, taste. The chasm between the traditional and photo © 2013 National Gallery in Prague 15 CZECH ART OF THE 20TH AND 21ST CENTURIES CZECH CONTEMPORARY ART GUIDE 16

is best documented by the transformation in the tering, fragments of reality and painted elements. made of the sculptor Zdeněk Pešánek, who from all the painters Jindřich Štýrský and Toyen and the work of the sculptor Otto Guttfreund [2]. Prior to Devětsil believed in “poetry for all the senses”, an the 1920s onwards was involved in illuminated ki- sculptor Vincenc Makovský. This group had been the outbreak of war, in works such as Kubistické allusion to the original meaning of the Greek word netic art. In 1930 a work by Pešánek in the form of especially infl uenced by the second manifesto poprsí / Cubist Bust (1912–13), Guttfreund had poesis, i.e. creativity in the widest sense of the a sculpture combing light, colour and movement by André Breton from 1929 and had close links drawn on the most radical Cubist forms. During word. The concept is most eloquently captured was installed on the Edison transformer station not to French surrealists. However, many other art- the war, while imprisoned as a member of the by the visual poem Abeceda / Alphabet (1926) by far from the Main Train Station in Prague. During ists were interested in surrealism during the 30s, Foreign Legion in France after demobilisation, Vítězslav Nezval [3], created using the individual the 1930s the fi rst kinetic sculpture in the world such as Josef Šíma, Zdenek Rykr and František he fashioned the Cubist Ležící žena / Reclining letters of the alphabet and then typographically Janoušek. Avant-garde photographers like Jaromír Woman (1916) from a piece of wood. However, modifi ed by Teige. The typography includes pho- Funke fell under the surrealist spell, while Karel after his return he began working in a traditional tographs of interpretations of individual letters by Teige and Jindřich Štyrský worked with surrealist spirit using traditional materials. For instance, he the dancer and choreographer Milča Mayerová. photographic collages. Surrealism as the last uni- cast the naively primitivising group sculptures versal avant-garde movement prior to World War Obchod / Business and Průmysl / Industry (1923) Two put down deep roots in the Czech art scene. from colourised plaster. A sense of continuity with pre-war avant-garde energies is basically to be found only in the work of representatives of the CZECH ART UNDER THE FASCIST group Tvrdošíjní / Stubborn, comprising adherents GOVERNMENT of a moderate Cubism such as Josef Čapek, Václav Špála and Jan Zrzavý. Soon after the Munich Agreement was signed in 1938, which established the right of Nazi Germany The renewed development of the avant-garde only to the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia, the rest takes place at the beginning of the 1920s. A new of the country became part of the Third Reich generation of fi ne artists and writers demanded in the form of the Protectorate of Bohemia and to make their voices heard within the framework Moravia. Though spared the worst of the fi ghting, of the association Devětsil / Butterbur. Over a few Czechoslovakia languished under Nazi despotism short years this became a recognised avant- and censorship. Like other modern forms of art, garde organisation with links to the international surrealism was deemed entartete kunst (degener- avant-garde network, whose members worked ate art). Nevertheless, it survived below the radar intensively on fi nding contemporary forms of of offi cial Protectorate culture and the young gen- expression. A key role was played by poets such as eration of artists regarded it as their natural base. Josef Seifert and Vítězslav Nezval, along with the The group Ra, made up of poets and artists such universal fi gure of Karel Teige. Notable members as Josef Istler, Václav Tikal and Václav Zykmund, of Devětsil included Adolf Hoff meister, František openly espoused it, though the group antedated Muzika, Toyen and Jindřich Štyrský. The fi rst phase its anthologies and activities during the war as of the movement’s output is strongly infl uenced by pre-war for understandable reasons. A basis in sur- poetism, as well as an admiration for the Russian realism can be found in the key fi gures of Group [4] Zdeněk Pešánek – Female Torso, 1936, neon - glass revolution and proletariat. Members of Devětsil - Plexiglas - artifi cial stone - wood - wires, 140×64×39, 42, František Hudeček and František Gross. Along- had a keen interest in everything new and closely [3] Karel Teige – Typography for the poem Alphabet by Vítězslav photo © 2013 National Gallery in Prague side the artists Kamil Lhoták, Jan Kotík, Stanislav followed developments in the spheres of technol- Nezval, 1926, photo © 2013 Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague Zívr and Jan Smetana, they attempted to preserve ogy, photography and fi lm, architecture and fi ne adorned the centre of Prague with its changing the achievements of pre-war modernism. The art. They admired constructivism and Dadaism and The level of Czech interwar typography was also light. Many of Pešánek’s designs, such as Pomník group’s programme was set forth in an essay by forged links with European avant-garde groups given a boost by the publishing house Družstevní letců / Monument to Pilots (1926), which even con- Jindřich Chalupecký entitled Svět, v němž žijeme / and schools. The architectural section of Devětsil, práce / Work Cooperative, whose aim was to tained an audio element, have not survived. The The World in Which We Live, which expressed the at the centre of which was the Prague “purist four” provide its members with aff ordable, good quality illuminated kinetic sculpture Ženské torso / Female interest of Group 42 in modern life, albeit under comprising Jaroslav Frágner, Karel Honzík, Vít Obr- literary and graphic books. The typographic style Torso (1936) [4] from the Fontána lázeňství / Spa the conditions of wartime insecurity. Members of tel and Evžen Linhart, later formed the core was largely created by Josef Sutnar. Later on a Fountain, created for the World Exhibition of Art the group depicted the modern city and its periph- of Czech functionalism. shop called Krásná jizba / Beautiful Room was and Technology in Paris in 1937, can be seen at the eries in their paintings. opened as part of the publishing house, which sold National Gallery in Prague. The sculpture includes A key fi gure in Devětsil was Karel Teige, not only as artworks and interior accessories, as well as books. coloured light bulbs, neon lights and electrical Prague was liberated on 9 May 1945, one day after its main theoretician and editor of the magazines The cooperative had a broad membership base installations allowing it to be gradually illuminated. the offi cial end of World War Two. It was already published by the group, but also a talented typog- and combined aesthetic values and top quality within the zone of Soviet infl uence, and so the rapher. Teige published essays on architecture, fi ne design with a focus on social issues. At the beginning of the 1930s the Czech art scene American army was forced to halt at Pilsen in West art and modern culture in general. In one essay It continued to fl ourish until World War Two, moved in the direction of surrealism. In 1934 Bohemia. The brief period in the aftermath of the he announced the end of the traditional picture though the association Devětsil basically collapsed Vítězslav Nezval founded the group of Czechoslo- war that saw the reunifi cation of the Czech lands and called for image and text to be combined in at the end of the 1920s. A host of interesting vak surrealists, which brought together the poets and Slovakia, split up during the war, proved to visual poetry. Visual poems mostly took the form personalities were active on the Czech art scene Konstantin Biebel and Jindřich Heisler, the theore- be a false promise of the renewal of democracy. of collages combining photography, reduced let- around this time. In this respect mention should be ticians Karel Teige and Bohuslav Brouk, and above A left-leaning political orientation coupled with 17 CZECH ART OF THE 20TH AND 21ST CENTURIES CZECH CONTEMPORARY ART GUIDE 18

gratitude to the Soviet Union, whose Red Army U-turns. Immediately after the Czechoslovak coup situation at that time. Young artists and sculp- had liberated Prague, led to the Communist Party d’état (Victorious February) in 1948, industry tors such as Jan Koblasa, Zdeněk Beran, Zbyšek of Czechoslovakia winning the elections in 1946. was nationalised, agriculture collectivised, and a Sion, Aleš Veselý and Čestmír Janošek created Under pressure from the Soviet Union, Czechoslo- centrally planned economy installed. Klement Got- dark, wilfully non-aesthetic structures that took vakia withdrew from the conference on the Mar- twald, leader of the Communist Party of Czecho- the form of painted canvases, objects and reliefs. shall Plan and to the amazement of the majority of slovakia, became president. Show trials were con- These artists admired Vladimír Boudník’s graphics, the population a communist putsch took place in ducted of opponents of the regime and opposing in which he used all kinds of non-artistic tech- February 1948. All attempts to pick up the threads forces within the party. These Stalinist methods niques, materials and tools. He would press metal- of the inter-war avant-garde and restore a multi- were confi rmed by the huge monument to General lic objects and diff erent materials onto a graphic layered democratic art scene, with its associations Stalin erected in 1955 above Prague. The death matrix, which were then printed as a monotype. and magazines, were vigorously suppressed. The of Stalin in 1953, followed by the denunciation of He processed panels using a hammer or other original hopes of many and their subsequent disil- the cult of personality at the 20th Congress of the tools that he had used as a toolmaker at the fac- lusionment were summed up in 1987 by Jindřich Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1956, led tory where he worked during the 50s. Chalupecký, one of the key theoreticians of the to a certain thaw in the Soviet zones of infl uence. unoffi cial post-war scene: “We were socialists, and However, this was a very slow, complex process, At the turn of the 1950s and 60s, after a decade of given the choice of East or West we chose East. well illustrated by the fate of the Stalin monument. stale, fi gural, socialist realism, structural abstrac- Not without misgivings. But we believed that the At the turn of the 1950s and 60s the fi fteen-metre tion became embedded in the Czech unoffi cial socialist system would spread to Western Europe high statue of the mass murderer accompanied by art scene. As well as the circle around the private and that with this behind us we could try to fi nd a a granite crowd of Czechoslovak and Soviet work- Confrontations, other personalities soon appeared conception of society diff erent to the Soviet one. ers and peasants still towered above Prague. The who developed abstraction in secret. Václav Boštík Our attempt to defend the original idea quickly Czechoslovak communist regime put off resolving leaps to mind, as well as many other young art- foundered. We had placed our hopes in the great this paradoxical situation. It was only in 1961, when ists who longed to try out this liberating way of liberation of human initiatives. Instead of that, pro- Stalin’s embalmed body was removed from its working for themselves, such as Zbyněk Sekal, Jiří fessional politicians presented socialism to us as mausoleum in Moscow, that a special commission Balcar and Hugo Demartini. After experimenting conceptual and artistic uniformity. Some adapted, was set up to sort things out. The commission con- with surrealist painting and despite a strong fi gural while others could not. It was a brutal awakening sidered replacing the central fi gure of Stalin with phase during the 50s, Mikuláš Medek also moved from a dogmatic doze, but it was benefi cial.” another personality, but in the end a decision was toward structural abstraction at the turn of the 50s taken to demolish the monument completely. To [5] Vladimír Boudník – Structural Graphics, 1965 II, 155×260 mm, and 60s. In 1964 Exhibition D was held in the New this day there remains a fi fteen-metre high socle from the collection of the Ztichlá klika Gallery Hall Gallery in Prague, at which the key fi gures Art under communism and architectural stairwell leading to the top of of Czech abstraction at that time were offi cially Letná Hill. Now, at the start of the 21st century, this Vladimír Boudník [5] being one such. This highly shown (e.g. Mikuláš Medek, Jan Koblasa, Václav In April 1948 the National Culture Congress was empty site on a hill in the centre of Prague stands original graphic designer, sensitive artist, and sup- Boudník, Jiří Valenta, Aleš Veselý, Robert Piesen, held, at which the new Czechoslovak cultural as a reminder of the complex history of the Central porter of the proletariat believed that everyone Jiří Balcar and Čestmír Janošek). The exhibition policy was drawn up. All existing arts associations European region and the traumas experienced. was born with imagination and creativity and had provides eloquent witness to the paradox of that and groups were disbanded and a single Union of it in them to be an artist. During the 50s he organ- time. Even though abstraction was at its zenith on Czechoslovak Fine Artists established. The crea- ised more than a hundred events in the streets of the unoffi cial scene, this was the fi rst time in many tion of any groups both within and without the The unoffi cial scene in the 1950s Prague, at which he explained and demonstrated years that it was possible to see it in Prague at an Union was offi cially banned until 1956. Membership the principles of Explosionalism to any interested offi cially sanctioned exhibition. Crowds of largely of the Union was the only way to lead an active During the 1950s the continuity of artistic activity passers-by on his easel in front of peeling walls. In unprepared and often shocked visitors fl owed artistic life. Socialist realism was declared the only was maintained only within small, inward-looking his Explosionalist manifestos Boudník proclaimed through the gallery. The more relaxed atmosphere offi cially sanctioned artistic style. Culture was to circles. One of these was the post-surrealist circle the necessity of freeing oneself from traditional on the Czech scene was clear, though it remained be fully under the control and at the service of the surrounding Karel Teige, which included Václav ideas about art. Even though he was primarily constrained by censorship to an extent. The exhibi- communist regime. Contact with centres of art Tikal, Josef Istler, Vratislav Eff enberger, Libor Fára, concerned with the aesthetic initiative of every tion catalogue was destroyed, as was the custom around the world was inevitably lost as artists were Jan Kotík, and Mikuláš and Emila Medek. Unable individual and promoting his own creative ideas, during the entire period of the totalitarian regime forbidden to travel or engage in a confrontation of to publish its work publicly the circle released the viewed through the prism of the development of with books that the censor subsequently deemed ideas. The dogma of socialist realism was too nar- samizdat anthologies Znamení zvěrokruhu / Signs action art in the 60s it is clear that these events inappropriate for the masses. Nevertheless, Exhibi- row for the Czech, interwar avant-garde infl uenced of the Zodiac. These typewritten anthologies were represented the fi rst happenings. However, at that tion D indicated that signifi cant changes were culture, and so many artists sought refuge in the illustrated and signed by members of the circle. time it was Boudník’s graphic work that resonated taking place around the middle of the 1960s on the seclusion of their studios, in the safety of circles After the death of Karel Teige in 1951 the circle more powerfully. In 1960 a group of young artists Czech art scene. of friends with shared ideas. It was here that what split up, though its members continued to play interested in abstraction took him as their model. we call the unoffi cial scene began to emerge. How- an important role on the Czech unoffi cial scene. Along with Boudník himself they organised two ever, this did not involve radically anti-totalitarian Vratislav Eff enberger kept the spirit of surrealism private exhibitions entitled Confrontations, at 1964–89 art, but rather oases of freedom within the desert alive and the painters Jan Kotík, Josef Istler and which they introduced work revealing overtones of totalitarian cultural dominance. Mikuláš Medek moved, each in his own way, in the of structural abstraction, i.e. what became known Czech Art of the 1960s direction of abstraction, which was current on the as Czech Art Informel. This was a style that could During the 1950s the communist regime expe- Czech scene at the turn of the 1950s and 60s. not be exhibited on the offi cial scene, and thus Though 1964 represents a kind of milestone in rienced rapid development and many political Other artists worked on a more solitary basis, can be seen as the most authentic reaction to the Czech post-war culture, it was not a turning point 19 CZECH ART OF THE 20TH AND 21ST CENTURIES CZECH CONTEMPORARY ART GUIDE 20

in any wider historical sense. If we were looking of individual galleries to selected exhibition com- The exhibition New Sensitivity off ered an overview thus wilfully eliminating the much-revered element for such a political turning point, we would have missions. The Václav Špála Gallery in Prague was of the neo-constructivist tendencies in Czech art of craft in the production of an artwork. Demartini to go back, for instance, to 1956, when the cult of a benefi ciary of this policy, and during the second of the second half of the 1960s. Jiří Padrta delib- worked imaginatively with these simple elements, personality surrounding Stalin was denounced, half of the 60s under the leadership of Jindřich erately incorporated examples of Czech concrete for instance availing himself of the fact that the or forward to 1968, when the hopes induced by Chalupecký mounted an exciting programme poetry and Lettrism in the exhibition. Artists chrome spheres refl ected their surroundings or reforms being made to Czech socialism were vio- that included exhibitions by Marcel Duchamp, the who devoted themselves to visual poetry during the viewer moving in front of the object. In his lently dashed. The year 1964 stands in the middle Gutai Group, as well as key fi gures of the Czech the 60s included not only Jiří Kolář, founder of Demonstrace v prostoru / Spatial Demonstrations of the liberalisation process, when the harshest art scene such as Jiří Kolář, Běla Kolářová, Mikuláš Křižovatka, but the future Czech president, Václav (1968–69) Demartini reduced the character of the totalitarian practices of the 1950s were gradually Medek, Libor Fára, Zbyněk Sekal, Jitka and Květa Havel. However, the central role in this sphere was creative gesture even more radically. He threw being transformed into the relatively freely func- Válová, Jiří Balcar, Adriena Šimotová, Jan Kubíček taken by personalities such as Jiří Hiršal, Bohumila wooden rods into space, creating random constel- tioning culture of the second half of the 60s. and Zorka Ságlová. Grögerová and Vladimír Burda, who in addition lations that existed only for a fl eeting moment. The to their poetry and translation work systemically ephemeral nature of these acts is caught in black- For Czechoslovakia the sixties represented a time By midway through the 60s the Czech art scene ensured that information regarding experimental and-white photographs, as in the case of concep- of reform and the liberalisation of society. From was highly stratifi ed. Post-surrealist, Art-Informel poetry and new progressive artistic trends was tual and action art then and later. During the 60s the end of the fi fties the establishment of crea- oriented abstraction gradually branched out made available in Czechoslovakia. the subjective element of the artist’s intervention tive groups within the framework of the Union of into broadly conceived “imaginative-art” trends, was dissipated even more in the work of Zdeněk Czechoslovak Visual Artists had been tolerated. alongside which the dominant roles were played The path to new sensitivity can be seen in the Sýkora. From the mid-60s onward Sýkora collabo- The up-and-coming generation of artists was fi rst by neo-constructivist tendencies on the one hand, work of the painter Zdeněk Sýkora [6] and the rated with the mathematician Jaroslav Blažek and to react, forming the groups Máj, Trasa and UB and new fi guration on the other. Action and con- sculptor Hugo Demartini. At the start of the 1960s carefully calculated the mutual positions of several 12. Their members had attended art school after ceptual art arose in parallel. Demartini created plaster and wooden structural elementary elements, which he varied according the Second World War and, despite their strict reliefs whose monochrome colour scheme (often a to a precisely defi ned structure of an image. The socialist education, yearned for the restoration deep red) resonated with the structural abstrac- complex combinations of relations eventually led of a modern form of artistic expression. Isolated New sensitivity and new fi guration tion of the turn of the 60s. However, he gradually Sýkora to use the fi rst computers. On these he from Western art, they attempted to distance inclined to a more rationalist oriented style. In the generated more and more complex structures in themselves from offi cial Czechoslovak culture New Sensitivity is the name of an exhibition mid-60s he began creating rectangular struc- terms of shape and colour, which he then carefully and to reconnect with the heritage of the wider organised in 1968 by Jiří Padrta, an art historian tured reliefs featuring chrome spheres. He used transferred to canvas using painterly techniques. avant-garde. Though their work from the end of specialising in suprematism and the work of Ka- prefabricated parts when creating these objects, This new positive rationality is one of the most the 1950s and start of the 60s might appear tame zimir Malevič, and one of the key fi gures in Czech important values of the new sensitivity. in comparison with what was going on in the rest post-war art theory. His interest in constructivism Marginal activities, such as work with sound and of the world, within a Czech context it represented and its off shoots saw him join forces with artists movement, form an independent subheading in a fi rm foundation for the development of the op- from the group Křižovatka / Crossroads, which the sphere of new sensitivity. During the second positional creative opinion of the 1960s and 70s. A at the start of the 60s brought together artists half of the 60s, Milan Grygar created a series of strong generation came into being, which included such as Jiří Kolář, Karel Malich, Zdeněk Sýkora and acoustic drawings in which he investigated the Adriena Šimotová, Karel Malich, Václav Boštík, Vladimír Mirvald. A fascination with concrete and spatial quality of sound. He concentrated on the Stanislav Kolíbal, and Květa and Jitka Válová, visual poetry, the structure of visual codes and drawing process itself, as well as on the elemen- nowadays regarded as leading representatives of the intellectual position of artistic expression put tary creative gesture, whose traces he captured Czech post-war art. the group at loggerheads with the interest in Art- on paper and in the form of an acoustic recording. Informel abstraction prevalent at that time. Mem- The result is a new interconnection of audiovisual The development of creative groups led to the for- bers of the group took the traditional elements of form. In several drawings Grygar used the physical mation of an oppositional force, the embodiment geometric abstraction and moved them to a level action of his own body, while in others he recorded of which, the Block of Creative Groups, managed related to the kineticism and op-art of the time, as the movements of diff erent items or mechanical to push through changes to the way the Union well as to the development of computer technol- toys. Milan Dobeš from Slovakia, who was also on of Czechoslovak Visual Artists operated at its ogy in the case of Zdeněk Sýkora. Their interest show at the New Sensitivity exhibition, drew on congress of 1964. The gradual liberalisation of was not so much in romantic and existentially the principle of kinetics in an interesting way. The society went hand in hand with the liberalisation oriented structural and Informel abstraction but in presence of Slovak artists was a natural part of and democratisation of culture. Against the wishes the world formed by human culture and technol- the Czech art scene throughout the existence of of politicians, highly regarded personalities from ogy, i.e. in the new natural order that humanity Czechoslovakia. the world of culture became leaders of the Union had constructed in opposition to the original prel- for the fi rst time since 1948. It now became pos- apsarian world. They reintroduced to Czech art or- In parallel with the wave of abstract art, be this of sible for non-members of the Union to register as der, rationality, as well as a kind of new sensitivity an Informel or neo-constructivist character, fi gura- professional artists with the Czech Fund of Crea- unencumbered by old models, myths and symbols tive paintings and sculptures formed a strong tive Artists, which allowed many hitherto politi- and the artistic forms related to them. On the one current on the Czech art scene of the 1960s. “New cally unacceptable artists to operate offi cially on hand this new sensitivity was cold and mathemati- fi guration”, as it was called, drew on many dif- the Czech art scene. Despite ongoing albeit very cally precise – see the work of Zdeněk Sýkora, Jan ferent sources. It was based on French narrative moderate censorship, from 1964 to 1968 the Union Kubíček and Karel Hilmar – while being lyrical and fi guration, as well as pop art, even though the [6] Zdeněk Sýkora – Black and White Structure, 1965, permitted a wide range of exhibitions to be held. poetic in the case of Karel Malich, Milan Grygar, oil on canvas, 220×160 cm, at present owned by the Jan latter never caught on within the Czech context It transferred the administration of the programme Stanislav Kolíbal and Václav Boštík. and Meda Mládek Foundation, Museum Kampa, Prague (the criticism of advanced capitalist society, with 21 CZECH ART OF THE 20TH AND 21ST CENTURIES CZECH CONTEMPORARY ART GUIDE 22

its consumerism and media world, did not resonate Načeradský and the sculptures by Karel Nepraš environments, and attempted to transform the criterion was the approach of the individual artist in a country held back by centralised planning and we fi nd drastic deformations and black humour. traditional role of artist and viewer. to the occupation of Czechoslovakia and the sub- a chronic lack of even the most basic goods). New Many of the pictures and sculptures thematize the Prague Spring, the name given to a series of sequent changes of normalisation. This fact led realism, which fi gured in an exhibition of Yves Klein absurdity of the period using grotesque hyperbole reforms that the Czechoslovak Communist Party to an unprecedented deterioration in offi cial art in Prague in 1968, had a certain infl uence. However, (Jiří Sopko, František Janoušek, Věra Janoušková, approved at the start of 1968, was a unique at- during this period. new fi guration above all entailed the rehabilitation Naděžda Plíšková, Bohumil Zemánek), but with tempt to democratise the socialist regime within of the fi gure held in contempt by socialist realism a new emphasis on existentialism (Jitka and the Soviet zone of infl uence. However, on 21 Within society as a whole, as in the 50s, this led and a movement beyond the modernism of the Květa Válová, Adriena Šimotová, Eva Kmentová August 1968 the process was terminated with the to a retreat into the private, into the safety of 50s, in which post-cubist and post-surrealist ele- [7], Olbram Zoubek, Zdeněk Palcr). It was these invasion of Warsaw Pact troops. Soviet forces small circles of friends, where it was possible to ments still appeared. properties that made of new fi guration one of maintained a permanent presence in Czechoslo- trust those around and live relatively freely given the dominant elements of the Czech art scene in vakia and were only withdrawn after the Velvet the straitened circumstances. Many artists whose New fi guration was not associated with one years to come, when the harsh totalitarian regime Revolution in 1989. At the turn of the 1960s and work during the 60s had shown promise, such specifi c group, but was the combination of returned. 70s Czechoslovakia entered the second phase as Stanislav Kolíbal, Karel Malich, Zdeněk Sýkora, several currents of thought on the Czech art of the totalitarian regime. This was to have far- Adriena Šimotová and Aleš Veselý, as well as Jiří scene. An important exhibition in respect of the reaching consequences for Czechoslovak society Sopko and Hugo Demartini from the younger formulation of this movement was that curated Action and conceptual art and culture. generation, closed themselves in their studios by Eva Petrová and Luděk Novák in 1969 entitled of the 1960s and created unique works during the wilderness New Figuration. The exhibition included artists of normalisation. Others joined forces in alter- spread across generations, groups and personal Traditional forms of art were being undermined Normalisation native communities, such as the underground styles. When selecting exhibits the curators laid from all sides during the 1960s. The most impor- Křižovnická škola čistého humoru bez vtipu / emphasis on a feeling of newness, on feelings and tant idea was that the artwork could take any The term “normalisation” is contained in the Crusaders’ School of Pure Humour Without Jokes. situations prevalent at that time that had char- subject, assume any form, and could be created Moscow Protocol, which representatives of the A wide variety of personalities from the art world acterised the 60s. In the text accompanying the using any resources. With the liberalisation of the Czechoslovak state were forced to sign on 27 met here, such as Karel Nepraš, Jan Steklík, Eugen exhibition Petrová and Novák drew attention to regime in the mid-60s information began reaching August 1968. Among other things the protocol Brikcius and Rudolf Němec, as well as several a new anthropocentrism. However, this does not Czechoslovakia about progressive Western trends, described the occupation of Czechoslovakia by important theoreticians of the 70s such as Ivan mean that new fi guration is more humanist or op- about the Fluxus movement, new music and Warsaw Pact forces as the fraternal assistance of (Magor) Jirous, Věra Jirousová and Olaf Hanel. timistic: quite the contrary. In the pictures by Jiří experimental poetry, about the sheer variety of the USSR. Normalisation then became the offi cial A distinctive circle of artists formed around the manifestations of conceptual art. However, even term for the purges and other repressive meas- theoretician and artist Jiří Valoch in Brno. From prior to this a group called Actual Art had been ures which followed the occupation. In January the 60s onwards Valoch devoted himself to visual created in Prague centred around Milan Knížák. 1969 Gustáv Husák took over the function of First poetry, conceptual drawing and textual installa- The group organised several happenings in the Secretary of the Czechoslovak Communist Party tions, and as a curator supported conceptual art- streets of Prague, such as První manifestace AU / from Alexander Dubček, the central fi gure of the ists from around the whole of Czechoslovakia. First Manifestation of AA (1964) and Procházka po Prague Spring, and as the Czechs say “socialism Novém Světě – Demonstrace pro všechny smysly with a human face” was transformed into “social- Czech artists resolved the dilemma of not being / A Walk Around Nový Svět – Demonstrations for ism with goose pimples” (the name Husák could able to exhibit in various ways. Some left for the All the Senses (1964). All of these events took be translated as Gooseman). The reforms of countryside and developed a Czech form of land the form of a radical artistic performance that spring 1968 were repealed, and this was followed art within an uncensored environment (e.g. Miloš expressed the utopian thinking of the group. Later by a huge wave of emigration, the dissolution of Šejn, Zorka Ságlová, Ivan Kafka). Others, such as on the Aktual movement attempted not only to civil associations and organisation, purges in the Petr Štembera, Jan Mlčoch and Karel Miler, shifted transform art but the qualitative life of every indi- Communist Party (more than 300,000 members the focus to their own body and the situation of vidual, as is clear, for example, from the manifesto were expelled), and mass layoff s. Harsh censor- humankind as such. They organised secret evening Aktual – Žít jinak / Aktual – Live Diff erently (1965). ship was introduced and the level of civil rights performances in alternative spaces, e.g. the cellars returned to the state which had prevailed in the of the Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague, where Thanks to the theoretician Jindřich Chalupecký, second half of the 1950s. Czechoslovak society Štembera worked as a night porter. The exalted Milan Knížák was soon connected with the Fluxus became Janus-faced, with one opinion being form of body art perhaps best expressed the op- movement and in 1966 was one of the organisers expressed in public and another in private. Even pressive atmosphere of the fi rst half of the 70s, of the Fluxfestival in Prague. It was now possible little children quickly learned to play the game when hopes of a change disappeared from the in Prague to experience live the full force of the of pretence, which Václav Havel, for instance, Czechoslovak horizon. most avant-garde Western conceptual art. Other unmasked in his well known essay The Power of action artists were working during the second half the Powerless. Soon after the start of normalisa- Midway through the 70s Jiří Kovanda [8] joined of the 60s, such as Eugen Brikcius, Jan Steklík and tion the Union of Czechoslovak Visual Artists forces with what was known as the Prague body- Zorka Ságlová. All of these artists moved in under- was reorganised, with only eight percent of its art trio. However, as opposed to the others, Ko- ground communities comprising not only artists, original founders able to remain members. The vanda also mounted what at fi rst sight seem com- but musicians, poets and other personalities who level of offi cial creative production refl ected this monplace, almost banal, performances in public refused to engage with offi cial culture. Like Milan and was again dominated by socialist realism, spaces, operating on the very boundary of being [7] Eva Kmentová – Hands II, 1968, plaster relief on wooden Knížák, Eugen Brikcius, Jan Steklík and Zorka albeit considerably less strict as regards form. recognised as such. In 1976 he organised several panel, 76×56 cm, photo © Museum Kampa, Prague Ságlová used the free happening form, alternative The quality of work took second place. The main events in the centre of Prague. In Untitled (1976), 23 CZECH ART OF THE 20TH AND 21ST CENTURIES CZECH CONTEMPORARY ART GUIDE 24

fi ne art. It describes those artists who during During the 1970s and 80s the main issue on the extent. Czech society learned how to exploit any the 1970s and 80s could not offi cially operate in art scene was the schism between offi cial and chinks in the structures of the regime. As well as public or for whom only a marginal, semi-offi cial unoffi cial culture and the prejudices regarding the exhibitions of the older generation of artists at or completely alternative zone of public presen- value and meaning of each. The underground had various out-of-the-way places where it was still tation was reserved. The term is usually used to been defi ned by Ivan (Magor) Jirous in his Zpráva possible at the start of the 80s to catch rever- cover a range of alternative activities by which o třetím hudebním obrození / Report on the Third berations of new fi guration, neo-constructivist the Czech art scene attempted to revive “normal” Czech Music Revival, which had been circulat- tendencies, as well as Czech Imaginative Art, artistic production after the wilderness of the ing in samizdat copies since the mid-70s. Jirous the new generation of the 70s made its appear- occupation. Private meetings and confrontations, eff ectively bridged the anti-regime music and art ance. This was mainly represented by painters events linked to peripheral cultural institutions or scenes and propagated the idea of non-compro- (e.g. Ivan Ouhel, Michael Rittstein, Tomáš Švéda, attempts to break into offi cial institutions took mise regarding both: “As soon as the devil (who Jiří Načeradský and Jiří Sopko) and sculptors place side by side. This basically entailed a set of today speaks through the mouth of the establish- (e.g. Kurt Gebauer, Jiří Beránek and Ivan Kafka) ingenious ways of circumventing the censorship ment) says – change the title and you can continue from the later formed group 12/15 Pozdě, ale of the time. Although from today’s perspective a to play what you play, you have to say ‘no, in that přece / Better Late than Never. But other artists few signifi cant events a year would appear to be case we won’t play.’” This was mainly a reference appeared, such as Magdalena Jetelová, Adéla sporadic in nature, at that time each of these was to the approach taken by the Czech underground Matasová, Jitka Svobodová, Jiří Sozanský and [8] Jiří Kovanda – Untitled, Wenceslas Square, 19 November 1976, Prague, performance of immense importance for the entire art scene. group Plastic People of the Universe, which was František Hodonský. Although this genera- A role was also played by the samizdat publica- later criminalised by the totalitarian regime. During tion worked mainly with traditional painting, it when he simply spread his arms for a moment tions Sborníky Památce / Anthologies In Re- normalisation, when survival often depended on a expanded considerably the medium of drawing, and stood as the crowds fl owed past him on the membrance (fi rst published in 1984) and Někdo host of humiliating compromises, the ethos of the while in its sculpture there is a clear emphasis on main promenade of Prague’s Wenceslas Square, Něco / Someone Something (fi rst published in underground sent out an important moral mes- objectivity and installation. Many artists created he came close to making a political statement. In 1985), which became an important information sage, namely that it is better not to be involved sculptures and installations on the borderline 1969, not far from the place where Kovanda stood, platform. In this respect the legendary publica- in art at all than to be involved in art that does of being land art, as well as working in public Jan Palach self-immolated in protest against devel- tion Šedá cihla / Grey Brick deserves a mention. not originate from one’s own convictions. For urban spaces. Works were created and exhibited opments in normalised Czechoslovakia. However, Because most samizdat publications lacked good certain radical representatives of the underground wherever it was possible, whether this be on ten- Kovanda’s intention was apolitical. He wanted to quality reproductions, the idea was hatched by a even the “soiled” grey zone was in many cases an nis courts in Stromovka Park in Prague (Setkání overcome the anonymity of the city and disrupt close circle of artists surrounding the Jazz Sec- unacceptable compromise, on the basis of which na tenisových dvorcích / Encounters on Tennis the barriers that everyone erects around them. At tion to publish off their own bat a catalogue of artistic quality was judged. The underground at- Courts, 1982) or in the hop plantation near the a time when nobody trusted anyone else, by mak- Czech painters and sculptures belonging to the tempted to create its own structures, a “second Karlovy Vary arterial road (Chmelnice ’83 / Hop ing this gesture Kovanda sought to open himself to grey zone. Work began on this publication, which culture”, independent not only of offi cial com- Plantation ’83). Action art continued to grow other people and to strike up contact. The rest of included 78 artists, in 1983, though it was only munication channels but of the social acceptance in signifi cance, with fi gures like Milan Kozelka, Kovanda’s street actions are completely unobtru- fi rst published under the title 78/1985 in 1987. Key and hierarchy of values of the fi rst (offi cial) culture. Margita Titlová and Tomáš Ruller expanding the sive, virtually indistinguishable from the surround- personalities of the older and middle generation The complex relations between the fi rst and possibilities of body art. An entire group of art- ing fl ow of reality. Only careful documentation and of Czech post-war art were represented in Šedá second culture, as well as between the offi cial and ists perpetuated and developed the conceptual the artist’s intention make of them key works of cihla. Only Margita Titlová and Vladimír Merta unoffi cial, the underground and the semi-offi cial art of the 70s (e.g. Dalibor Chatrný, J. H. Kocman Czech art of the 1970s. were featured from the younger up-and-coming grey zone, were perhaps most aptly analysed by and Marian Palla). generation of the 80s. Václav Havel in his essay Šest poznámek o kultuře / Six Assides About Culture (1984). Havel makes a During the fi rst half of the 80s more and more The Grey Zone During the 80s Jindřich Chalupecký was a re- distinction between the fi rst “offi cial” culture and unoffi cial and semi-offi cial exhibitions took place spected theoretician and critic of grey-zone art. the second “parallel” culture. He defi nes paral- in private studios and apartments, in homes At the end of the 1970s Czech art began to He faced the same isolation and diffi culties in lel culture as that which for various reasons the outside Prague in Malechov (1981) and Netvořice awaken from the shock of normalisation and publishing his opinions in public as did the artists state-controlled media does not want to or cannot (1981), as well as in marginal cultural institutions. what would later be termed by art history the with whom he was in contact and about whom use. Under the totalitarian regime it was formed Both in and out of Prague small gallery spaces “grey zone” slowly began to emerge. The term he wrote. For Chalupecký art was the religion of by thousands of diff erent people with limited began to operate that, thanks to the commit- was used in 1988 in the samizdat magazine His- modern Man. He believed that Czech art arose resources at their disposal for communicating with ment of their operators, as well as the tolerance torical Studies to designate historians who after under conditions diff erent to those in the West, the viewer or reader. It is therefore defi ned exter- extended to them by people in offi cial struc- 1968 remained within offi cial structures, i.e. in practically uninfl uenced by the art market, and nally; no common ideology or aesthetic links it. tures that were supposed to control them, put research institutions and universities. Neverthe- possessed not only a diff erent character but a Havel takes issue with many stereotypical opinions together strong programmes. These spaces often less, they remained in contact with those of their diff erent mission. This idealistic and avowedly regarding the value and function of the fi rst and enjoyed but a fl eeting existence. Nevertheless, former colleagues who had been expelled during transcendental model continued to resonate second cultures. Among other things he reacted they formed an important presence in the events the purges of normalisation and were willing to powerfully on the Czech art scene into the 90s, to Jindřich Chalupecký, who as well as offi cial and surrounding the Czech art scene during those meet them, discuss matters, and on occasion though critical voices began to be heard with anti-offi cial (clearly dissident) culture spoke of years and provided an important space for the help them. The “dirtiness” of the colour grey the arrival of postmodernism. Chalupecký was a genuine, modern culture, which is detached from presentation of artists working in the grey zone. was symptomatic of the sometimes less than universally respected fi gure and after the revolu- political and all other ideologies. Good examples would be the gallery space in the clean compromises which the totalitarian regime tion lent his name to the prestigious Jindřich foyer of the Opatov Cultural House or the cor- forced upon its citizens. In the end the term grey Chalupecký Award, the Czech equivalent of the At the start of the eighties the activities of the ridor of the Institute of Macromolecular Chemis- zone became associated fi rst and foremost with Turner Prize. parallel culture expanded to an unprecedented try in Petřiny. Both these institutions are located 25 CZECH ART OF THE 20TH AND 21ST CENTURIES CZECH CONTEMPORARY ART GUIDE 26

on the edge of Prague, in areas where nobody but did not sneer, and they had their own special in terms of material and object. As opposed to be the cycle of pictures by Jiří David [9] from 1988, would have expected quality culture. Neverthe- magic.” As opposed to preceding generations the 12/15, Tvrdohlaví arrived on the scene with little such as Domov / Home, Koruna and Bohemia, in less, thanks to the enlightened, often stubborn postmodern generation of artists took an active in- of the burden of the normalisation period, having which symbols of Czech statehood appear along- commitment of individuals they became two of terest in events in the West. They read magazines shaken off the political and social restrictions that side allusions to traditional folk-socialist decor still many centres of the grey zone of the 80s. such as Flash Art, Kunstforum, Art in America, and had handicapped preceding generations. Member- to be seen at that time. Artforum, and many sought out the opinions of ship of either the offi cial or unoffi cial scene ceased David is an example of a postmodern artist theoreticians who were monitoring events in the to be a key criterion for them. They responded who experiments with both style and medium, The arrival of postmodernism West. The rapid rise of the postmodern aesthetic, simply to the space of the postmodern aesthetic. constantly changing both. The original form of adopted intuitively to be begin with, was gradually Although older generations of artists had always Czech postmodernism is represented not only Postmodernism appeared in the grey zone in the cultivated by research into Western theory and perceived the postmodern visual language to be a in the work of painters, but of sculptors such as mid-80s. However, harbingers of the postmodern practice. fashionable import, it quickly took on an impor- Jaroslav Róna, Čestmír Suška, Michael Gabriel revolution can be traced back as far as the end of tant status. As well as Tvrdohlaví it was taken up and František Skála. Starting in the 80s Skála has the 70s, when translations appeared in samizdat In June 1987 the artists at the heart of the private by many other artists, such as Milan Knížák, Jiří been using various natural and commonplace publications of several key texts by Robert Venturi confrontations in Prague (Jiří David, Stanislav Diviš, Kovanda, Daniel Balabán, Antonín Střížek, Tomáš items to create objects infused with a charming and Charles Jencks. Postmodernism was much Petr Nikl, Jaroslav Róna, František Skála, Čestmír Císařovský, Martin Mainer, Jan Pištěk, Martin John, retro aesthetic. In his early works Gabriel was discussed in architectural circles, while it only burst Suška, et al.) decided to form the group Tvrdohlaví Otto Placht and Vladimír Skrepl. inspired by Egyptian and Assyrian art. However, onto the painting and sculpture scene in connec- / Stubborn and submit an offi cial report of the like Jaroslav Róna, for example, he interweaves tion with exhibitions of pictures by Vladimír Skrepl fact to the Union of Czechoslovak Visual Art- inspiration from the ancients and a modern and Martin John from 1984 and 1985 and the ists. Perestroika was loosening the restrictions of sculptural expressiveness. He uses not only wood private exhibitions entitled Confrontations which normalisation, and what was basically an impu- and bronze, but also polyester resins, laminates, took place in private studios and homes between dent gesture passed by the authorities without wax, walnut shells, and other materials. Petr Nikl 1984 and 1987. The series entitled Confronta- being challenged. Soon afterwards the Union was created a distinctive visual style drawing on the tions announced the arrival on the art scene of informed of the establishment of Volné seskupení myths of his childhood. Drawing on a spirit of the up-and-coming generation of the 80s, which 12/15 Pozdě, ale přece / Free Coalition 12/15, Better play Nikl moves from the creation of pictures to drew on the energy of “Neue Wilde”, the primitiv- Late than Never, a group of friends/artists of the unusual objects and installations, which he then ism of German neo-expressionism, and the Italian 70s generation (Ivan Ouhel, Michael Rittstein, Jiří reworks into improvised theatre performances. transavantgarde. The pictures of this postmodern Načeradský, Jiří Sopko, Jiří Beránek, Ivan Kafka, et Even though this generation draws on an infi nite generation are both wild and mythical. They mark al.). The somewhat convoluted name of the group range of styles, materials and approaches, the a rupture with the traditional canon of fi gural and was a response to the creation of Tvrdohlaví, which unifying link remains a kind of new energy, abstract painting developed by the generations had already pinned its colours to the mast of the which dismantles the rules of traditional creative of the 1960s and 70s. It is interesting to observe postmodern aesthetic. Members of Volné sesku- approaches while forging the postmodern the way the artists undermine the visual and pení 12/15 Pozdě, ale přece, on the other hand, tradition of which artists of the next generation will thematic integrity of a picture. They were unafraid were interested in pursuing the modernist aesthetic be a part. of fragmenting and subsequently combining of previous decades and proudly traced their ante- what had hitherto been considered incompat- cedents back to the generation of the 60s. Leaving ible. If we look today at photographs of the fi rst aside other less infl uential or later group initiatives, Czech art from 1989 to the present day exhibition of Confrontations (1984), which was Tvrdohlaví and 12/15 can be seen as representing held in the painter Jiří David’s studio, we are privy the aesthetic antitheses of that time. The demonstrations held in Prague throughout [9] Jiří David – INRI, 1987, oil on canvas, 160×135 cm to the atmosphere typical of encounters of the the whole of 1989 culminated on 17 November. The grey zone. The exhibition is above all an important The 12/15 generation represented art harking brutal tactics used by the police against the march meeting of like-minded spirits, a moment of free back to the aesthetic of the sixties and adhering If we examine the eighties generation from today’s by students on Národní třída in Prague was the communication and the presentation of offi cially fully to the modernist format. This is art based perspective, it is clear that a new, confi dent style last straw for the citizens of Czechoslovakia and unexhibitable works. However, in paintings that on classic modernism formed by the experience of painting dominates, whether this takes the the powder keg was lit. The subsequent strike by are hung wherever it was possible – in the studio, of totalitarianism. The emphasis is on individual form of a primitivising expressive gesture (Otto university students and senior school pupils, thea- but also on the staircase, on the building facade style and purity of technique. Figurative painting Placht, Vladimír Skrepl) or fragmented fi guration tres and even television employees activated the and in the small courtyard – we see the birth of a predominates, which in the works of Václav Bláha, (Daniel Balabán, Tomáš Císařovský). A feeling for whole of society. Hundreds of thousands of people new aesthetic, one which emphatically rejects the for instance, possesses an existential urgency, banal subjects depicted with a new mythifying marched daily to demonstrate on the squares of canon of preceding generations, with its emphasis while it is the expressive line of Czech humour and force appears, such as in the fi gural paintings of their towns and cities and jingled their keys indi- on professional technical execution. While in some a sense of the grotesque that feature in the works Antonín Střížek or works thematising abstraction cating that the communist leadership had to go. respects primitive, these pictures and sculptures of Michael Rittstein, Jiří Načeradský and Jiří Sopko. and ornament (Stanislav Diviš, Petr Kvíčala, Martin The rapid course of the Velvet Revolution as it was are also romantic and naive. Jana and Jiří Ševčík, Abstract elements also appear in the work of Ivan John). We rarely fi nd works reacting to the present known in what was at that time the Czechoslovak the key theoreticians of Czech postmodernism, Ouhel, Tomáš Švéda and Petr Pavlík. Sculpture oc- as lived in the pictures of this generation, most of Socialist Republic took not only the leadership wrote the following: “These works were pro- cupies a special place in 12/15. In his fi gural works which are concerned with issues of form. They in- by surprise, but the opposition too, which took vocative but did not arouse anxiety. They made Kurt Gebauer straddles the boundary between the terrogate their own mythology or explore diff erent over power. On 1 January 1990 the newly elected demands on the space around them in order to be new fi guration of the 1960s and 70s and eighties visual styles. If they touch upon political and social president, Václav Havel, gave his fi rst New Year’s appreciated. They were personal and yet collec- postmodernism, while Ivan Kafka and Jiří Beránek issues, it is always in a completely non-participa- address to the citizens of Czechoslovakia: “My dear tively intelligible. They exhibited humour and irony, concentrated on installations that are site-specifi c tory, aestheticising way. An example of this would fellow citizens, for forty years you heard from my 27 CZECH ART OF THE 20TH AND 21ST CENTURIES CZECH CONTEMPORARY ART GUIDE 28

predecessors on this day diff erent variations on to the range of stylistic opinions and themes. As ský - Martin Polák, Markéta Othová, Federico Díaz on his body). Of course, such elements are not the same theme: how our country was fl ourishing, well as Vladimír Skrepl, who in the 1990s set about and Jiří Černický, was basically overseen by David completely new within the context of Czech art. how many million tons of steel we produced, how developing a neo-expressionist approach that dis- Černý and the Pondělí Group founded by students One only has to think of Jiří Kovanda’s conceptual happy we all were, how we trusted our govern- dained aesthetic refi nement and beauty, Vladimír of the Academy in 1989. work based on the aesthetic of minimal diff er- ment, and what bright perspectives were unfolding Kokolia and Martin Mainer attracted great atten- David Černý fi rst made a name for himself with ences, which had been continuously evolving since in front of us. I assume you did not propose me for tion. From the start Kokolia’s painting represented his sculpture of a walking Trabant entitled Quo this offi ce so that I, too, would lie to you. Our coun- the search for the energy systems of this world, vadis (1990), a reaction to the exodus of Eastern try is not fl ourishing. The enormous creative and and initial fi gural motifs quickly became systems Germans to West Germany via the West German spiritual potential of our nation is not being used of connected lines enabling us to see beneath the Embassy in Prague prior to the fall of the Berlin sensibly. Entire branches of industry are produc- surface of reality. Spiritual subtexts and glimpses Wall. This public sculpture was a portent of Černý’s ing goods that are of no interest to anyone, while of other worlds are strong elements in Mainer’s approach to sculptural installation, which is more we are lacking the things we need.” Havel wanted work too. As well as these artists other painters interested in social and political situations than to stress that, despite the euphoria gripping the and sculptors reworked their early material in the in aesthetic form. Typically his work is installed nation at the newly acquired freedom, the serious- postmodernism of the 90s into a personal creative within a public context and deliberately sets out ness and complexity of the political, economic and vision, e.g. Jan Merta, Václav Stratil, Čestmír Suška to provoke the general public and attract media social transformation process which Czech and and Michael Gabriel. attention. Černý managed this in other works, the Slovak society faced in 1989 must not be forgotten. most important of which include Pink Tank (1991)

In 1993 Czechoslovakia dissolved and Václav Havel The loss of faith in “universal narratives” opened [10]. Tank no. 23, which after the Second World [11] Petr Lysáček – With ČSAD (Czechoslovak Bus Transport) became the fi rst president of the Czech Republic. up the possibility of a pluralistic view of reality. War was placed on a fi ve-metre high plinth in a in 100 Diff erent Manners, 1990, mixed media, 30×60×60 cm Although for more than half a century the Czech Although information regarding the postmodern square in Prague as a memorial to the liberation and Slovak cultures had successfully coexisted discourse had been entering the Czech envi- of Prague by the Red Army, was transformed by the 1970s. Humhal’s text Nový zákon / New Testa- side by side, these days the art history of the two ronment throughout the 80s (through the fi rst David Černý into an artwork by being painted pink. ment, published in 1991 in the magazine Výtvarné countries is written separately. This text will there- samizdat translations, and even earlier), post- This gesture, a reaction to the Velvet Revolution umění / Fine Art, is regarded as the manifesto of fore examine the Czech art scene exclusively and modernism became a widely debated topic only and the inability of Czech society to radically the Pondělí Group. One of the works reproduced in regard Slovak culture as its parallel. after the Velvet Revolution. It was dismissed by confront its communist past, opened the space for connection with this article is the object Chci, aby some, while discovered and explored by others. new politically engaged art. nám lidé rozuměli / I Want People to Understand The result was the defi nitive rupture between the Us (1989–1990), a small wooden tablet containing Art after the Velvet Revolution visual and conceptual integrity of the artwork. At the start of the 90s the group Pondělí returned this inscription. The works of other members of Fragmentation, the combination of the hitherto social themes to art as part of a subtle examina- the group share a similar character. They do not The fi rst post-revolutionary years wrought many incompatible and the loss of the aura surrounding tion of the social terrain (Milena Dopitová, Pavel involve artifi cially or artistically created forms, but changes on the Czech cultural scene. Gone was the fi nal artwork made new approaches possible, Humhal, Petr Lysáček, Michal Nesázal, Petr Písařík, are combined with ordinary items that have a cer- censorship, along with organisations associated which were played out on many diff erent levels, Petr Zubek). However, they processed burning tain signifi cance for the artists, be this a coat hang- with the totalitarian regime, such as the Union be this in the fi eld of medium, form or concept. It social issues of the day not as openly engaged er, hand mirror and torch in Civilní instalace / Civil of Czechoslovak Visual Artists and other institu- was this situation that the new generation reacted projects, but more through private refl ection, inti- Installation (1990) by Pavel Humhal, or toy fi gures tions (galleries, magazines and publishing houses), to. The transition between the postmodernism mate messages and testimony. The very name of standing on a bus in the object by Petr Lysáček which in the best-case scenario were transformed of the 1980s and the new generation of the 90s, the group – Pondělí / Monday – evokes something S ČSAD stokrát jinak / With ČSAD (Czechoslovak into new democratic institutions and in the worst comprising artists such as Veronika Bromová, run-of-the-mill but common to all. It is precisely Bus Transport) in 100 Diff erent Manners (1990) disappeared or were asset-stripped under the Kateřina Vincourová, Jiří Příhoda, Lukáš Jasan- on the border between the private and public [11]. Such combined installations create a whole poorly conceived legal system of early capitalism. that this generation was most often located. Its which is greater than the sum of its individual A revolution in art itself had taken place before the members used a variety of materials to create ob- parts. Though the concept is fundamental, it is not political revolution, when the eighties generation jects either by hand or using industrial processes, the main content of the work but is present in the had arrived on the scene with its postmodern pro- which they then combine with photographs or background. This method of work, be it in the form gramme. This generation was also best prepared other new media. This approach would not have of sculptural objects, monumental installations or to adopt the new operating mechanisms of the been possible without the lesson of postmodern- minimal interventions in the existing environment, art scene and to assert itself on it. The group Tvr- ism. The breakdown of the picture as a whole, quickly took root on the Czech art scene and is at dohlaví (Jiří David, Stanislav Diviš, Michal Gabriel, the democratisation of the creative process and present being developed by the latest in a long line Zdeněk Lhotský, Petr Nikl, Stefan Milkov, Jaroslav its liberation from traditional models – all this of young post-conceptual artists. Róna, František Skála, Čestmír Suška), which opened up new possibilities that young people came into being following the unoffi cial pre-revo- quite understandably seized upon. Compared to These perceive themselves as artists in a new way. lutionary series of exhibitions entitled Confronta- the preceding generation these are almost unac- The artist ceases to be a suff ering genius unrec- tions, held an exhibition at the National Gallery in ceptably commonplace objects, whose sole claim ognised in their own time, but a normal individual Prague in 1991. Young postmodern artists became to being art is their inclusion within an artistic whose work is perceived as belonging to a certain reputable fi gures in their middle age. Postmodern context (e.g. photographs of consumed chew- community, as a form of communication regarding painting took over the Czech art world. Mature ing gum in Žvýkačka / Chewing Gum (1993) by certain topics. If we leave aside the documenta- pictures by members of Tvrdohlaví, as well as by Milena Dopitová, or Hvězdy mého těla / The Stars tion of performances and other conceptual works, Antonín Střížek, Tomáš Císařovský, Vladimír Koko- of My Body (1993) by Pavel Humhal, a series of the face of the artist fi rst becomes part of the lia, Martin Mainer and Vladimír Skrepl, bore witness [10] David Černý – Pink Tank, 1991 photographs in which the artist circled the freckles artistic utterance only in the 1990s. This might 29 CZECH ART OF THE 20TH AND 21ST CENTURIES CZECH CONTEMPORARY ART GUIDE 30

Řeholní pacient / Monastic Patient (1991) [12]. Or it art. “Non-photographers” tend to lack a traditional might include the digitally manipulated large-scale training in photography and to ignore the pre- photographs by Veronika Bromová, in which the cepts of professional precision and technological artist herself often appears in various bizarre posi- processing. This allows them to experiment with tions fl aunting an often deliberately problematised layout and installation and interrogate the medium sexuality. We also fi nd feminist overtones in the of photography from various perspectives. work of Milena Dopitová, in which the artist’s own identity is interrogated through cooperation with As far as sculpture is concerned, as well as David her identical twin sister. One of the fi rst instal- Černý great attention should be paid to Kateřina lations in which Dopitová combined an object Vincourová, Jiří Příhoda and Lukáš Rittstein [14]. (a pink crocheted table and two stools) with The work of these artists best documents the large-scale photography depicts the artist and shifts taking place in the post-revolutionary period. her sister in bathing caps. There are subtle, almost Rittstein works with a wide range of materials, imperceptible diff erences in the character of their creating monumental object-based constellations faces. Though it might appear that computer with links to post-minimalist sculpture and the manipulation is involved, the photograph captures lessons of postmodernism. Příhoda works with two separate human beings, each with an indi- space and is known for his complex installations/ vidualised fate and existence. During the nineties environments. In the 90s he was inspired by fi lm, Jiří Surůvka, a performer and conceptual artist liv- ing in the industrial city of Ostrava, also incorpo- rated his own identity into his work. His approach is typical for the fi rst half of the 1990s. Surůvka creates pictures, objects, photographs, digital im- ages and video. His main aim is to critique social phenomena. The artist’s personality is manifest in [13] Michal Kalhous – Untitled, 2000, a host of works in which Surůvka includes his less photography on fomaspeed, 150×108 cm than ideally proportioned fi gure with a disarming irony. His performances dressed in a Batman or respect one could mention Markéta Othová or Policeman costume are unforgettable. Michal Kalhous [13], whose photographs capture the most ordinary subjects from their surround- All of these artists drew on new media, especially ings. However, they suppress classical photo- new digital technology, which started to appear graphic layout using large-scale blow-ups, which on the Czech market after the revolution. Vilém they did not hesitate to attach directly to the wall [15] Jiří Příhoda – Shot/Shutter 02, Flood, 1995–96 Flusser, the important Czech-born theoretician of in sensitive installations. Writing of this wave of photography, who died in 1991 in a car accident conceptual photography Pavel Vančát coined the while on his way home from a lecture he had given term “non-photography”, in order to point out how in Prague, had a strong infl uence on the Czech these works diff er from classical photography, environment, in which a critical postmodernism which until that time had been developing in a was developing after the revolution using the kind of parallel fashion sealed off from other fi ne methods of appropriation and simulacrum, replac- ing reality by representation. Conceptual work with photography took a variety of forms. The greatest interest was shown in digitally manipulated colour pictures, as seen in the work of Veronika Bromová and Jiří Surůvka. This introduced a Western visual style into the post-totalitarian drabness of a public space still unaff ected by advertising. However, a strong current of classical black-and-white pho- tography ran in parallel. In the post-revolutionary period this current expanded out of a closely delineated context of professional photography [12] Václav Stratil – The series Monastic Patient, 1991, and onto the art scene mainly thanks to the work photo-performance of the duo Lukáš Jasanský and Martin Polák. Jasanský’s and Polák’s postmodern conceptual involve the photo portraits of Václav Stratil, who approach to classical photography stands at the had himself photographed in a variety of costumes head of a long line of artists working on the Czech [14] Lukáš Rittstein – Eyes, 1998, in the National Gallery in [16] Kateřina Vincourová – About Sculpture, 1994 in communal photo studios in the series entitled scene from the 1990s to the present day. In this Prague, rubber, wood, epoxy, perspex, 700×500×300 cm 31 CZECH ART OF THE 20TH AND 21ST CENTURIES CZECH CONTEMPORARY ART GUIDE 32

which gave rise, for instance, to the installation time before the idea took hold that even “true” cember 1997. This state of aff airs was perhaps best At this time the greatest attention on the Czech Záběr /klapka 02, Potopa / Shot/Shutter 02, art could be a state-supported element of culture, depicted by the sculpture Kůň / Horse (1999) by scene was concentrated on new media and Flood (1995–96) [15], a kind of mock-up of an paid for from public and private funds, with all the David Černý [17]. Černý’s reworking of the national post-conceptual procedures. Exhibitions were underwater fi lm scene. It is diffi cult to character- restrictions ensuing therefrom. It was more diffi cult monument of St Wenceslas, patron saint of the dominated by installations, objects, videos, texts, ise Kateřina Vincourová’s work as sculpture. It is for the Czech art scene to get used to the fact Czech lands, which stands on Wenceslas Square in audio works, and various combinations thereof. The more appropriate to speak of a trinity comprising that art is also a commodity. During the whole of Prague, where the most important demonstrations picture as a traditional medium, elevated by mod- sculpture-object-installation. If we take her early the 90s this state of aff airs was complicated by had taken place against the old regime, speaks ernism to the pinnacle of “high” art, became in the works Neděle / Sunday (1992) or O soše / About for itself. St Wenceslas, gazing into the future, sits eyes of many symbolic of a traditional, outmoded Sculpture (1994) [16] as examples, these are sculp- proudly on a worn-out nag hung upside down. form of expression. Even so, painting found its tures continuing in the best tradition of Czech Among other things this was a reaction to the champions. During the 90s imposing fi gures of the sculpture of the 1970s and 80s (see for example tightening of belts, when the fi rst item of public 80s generation such as Jiří David, Vladimír Skrepl, Magdalena Jetelová), and only their materials and expenditure to be subject to cuts was culture. In Antonín Střížek, Stanislav Diviš, Petr Nikl and Jan installation method might surprise us somewhat. addition, during the mid-90s the Open Society Merta coexisted alongside younger painters. The Parts of Neděle (a table and chair, stool, curtains Fund discontinued its support for the Czech Soros nineties was a time when a generally recognised and vase) are made of rubber, a material regarded Centre, which had played a key role in the develop- aesthetic consensus cased to apply, and so paint- as non-artistic in the traditional sense of the word. ment of standard art activities after the revolution. ing takes many forms during these years. Despite These are objects for the simple reason that Vin- many outstanding examples of abstraction (Petr courová treats them as such. The table and chair, If from today’s perspective we try to characterise Pasterňák, Kateřina Štenclová), the Czech art only slightly larger than ordinary furniture, were the period around the middle of the 90s, it seems scene in the 90s is dominated by objectivity and arranged on the fl oor when exhibited at the Behe- that the most apposite term would be “dispersed fi guration. Standing side by side we fi nd immedi- mót Gallery in Prague. In O soše Vincourová placed concentration”, a term proposed by Jiří Ševčík, a ately expressive fi gural painting (Jakub Špaňhel, a theatre prop of a horse in a suspended mem- key theoretician of that time. He was describing a Jiří Typlt, Vít Soukup), compositionally cleansed brane. These are installations whose location in certain lack of focus and fragmentation of post- painting based on the photographic image (Petr space is as important as their individual parts. An revolutionary developments, which the Czech art Malina), or a personal mythology of the grotesque emphasis on the spatial context in which the works scene began to recapitulate in the mid-90s. The (Martin Kuriš). These styles are joined by photo- are presented is fundamental to the 90s. Many feeling prevails that postmodernism has been over- realist painting (Roman Franta) and a wide range works were created for a specifi c space and often come and Czech art is beginning to fi nd itself in a of experimental work, such as that of František drew on a locally specifi c situation. During the diff erent situation. This attitude can be interpreted Matoušek [19] using ripped denim or Josef Bolf’s nineties fi ne art was created against the backdrop either as a rejection of postmodernism as being paintings on plastic. of hectic and sometimes chaotic changes in socie- a short-term error or as its ongoing transforma- ty. Not only the political and economic system, but tion. A host of projects attempted to capture this When the curator Milena Slavická prepared the individual cultural institutions and the media space moment, ranging from the curatorial exhibitions exhibition Poslední obraz / Last Painting in 1997, were being transformed. As well as the psycho- Zkušební provoz. Má umění mladé? / Test Run. in her introduction she asked: “Does it still make logical changes wrought in society by the freedom Does Art Have Young Ones? (1995), Respekt. sense to paint pictures? Is this not the fi rst time to travel, democratisation of the media space and Vzpomínky na budoucnost/Memories for the in the history of 20th century European art when access to information, and a gradual habituation to Future (1996), Villa (1996), the fi rst years of the the artist is asking him or herself this question. multiculturalism and themes based around gender, [17] David Černý – Horse, 1999, photo ©Jan Rasch festival 4+4 dny v pohybu / 4+4 Days in Motion, (...) Indeed! Why paint a picture? Why learn to ecology and globalisation, it was the adaptation to Jitro kouzelníků? / The Morning of the Magi- draw and paint, when you have photography capitalist mechanisms that impacted most on art the non-existence of a market for art. Private com- cian (1996–1997) at the National Gallery, to the and computers? Why learn to play the violin or after the revolution (in 1991 prices were deregu- mercial galleries and auction houses only began to exhibition DUM in a non-gallery space in Prague compose an original piece of music, when you have lated and the privatisation project initiated). The develop on a stable basis in the second half of the (1997). Though these are very diverse projects readymade compositions and recordings and you commercial side of art was still a traumatic aff air 90s. The number of enlightened individuals who enjoying diff erent levels of institutional support, can mix them electronically and create new works? for most of the art community. Before the revolu- supported art from the money they had earned taken as a mosaic they illuminate well the range Mastering a musical instrument, composition and tion trading in art had only been offi cially possible through other activities had been negligible during of artistic activities taking place. If we compare likewise mastering the art of drawing, painting and via the Czech Fine Arts Fund, which during the the years of state-controlled culture and com- them with the exhibitions which drew attention in pictorial composition is so diffi cult! It’s absurd, period of normalisation had kowtowed to the munist propaganda. An awareness of the prestige the fi rst half of the 90s, we see a clear shift both you’re simply wasting your time and energy.” At regime and the ideas of socialist realism. The grey linked with cultural sponsorship and patronage in the form of the exhibition and the content on the exhibition Slavická introduced artists of the zone therefore logically lived with the feeling that had fi rst to be aroused in Czech society. show. The fi rst half of the 90s was dominated youngest generation who had updated the form of “true” ideologically unburdened art was created by retrospective exhibitions reconstructing the traditional illusory image, either through references only for a close circle of friends and that to create history of the pre-revolutionary unoffi cial scene, to historical painting and academicism (Ľubomíra it for the general public and for money would be a Dispersed concentration thanks to which the history of Czech post-war art Kmeťová, Karel Balcar, Tomáš Kubík) or to modern, betrayal of one’s own truth (morality). This myth, of the mid-90s began to be written. Only sporadically are they realist painting (Milan Salák, Vít Soukup). Terms though understandable in Czechoslovakia under supplemented by the fi rst curatorial exhibitions, and topics began to appear on the Czech art scene normalisation, had a paralysing eff ect in the 90s. During the mid-90s Czech society entered a criti- e.g. those of Jana and Jiří Ševčík, Milena Slavická that had been taboo in the post-revolutionary The post-revolutionary transformation of Czech cal phase. The post-revolutionary euphoria gave and Vlasta Čiháková-Noshiro, which gradually period as characterised by the restoration of Czech fi ne art could perhaps be summed up as the way to a nation-wide “bad mood” as Václav Havel established the role of curator on the Czech art modernism and the promotion of postmodernism. necessity to transcend this attitude. It was some dubbed it in a speech he gave in Prague in De- scene. Otto Urban updated decadence, Marie Rakušanová 33 CZECH ART OF THE 20TH AND 21ST CENTURIES CZECH CONTEMPORARY ART GUIDE 34

exhibited Czech academic paintings, and other object Kaktusy / Cactuses (1999) [18] from plastic days it no longer matters whether it is painted or artists such as Ján Mančuška, Michal Pěchouček exhibitions expanded the already broad span of waste and the ambivalent stands entitled Screen photographed. The hierarchy of art has crumbled and Tomáš Vaněk typically displays civility, lack contemporary art. (2001). More important than the object itself are and each medium off ers diff erent possibilities. of ostentation, and is anchored in the local social the instructions that the artist provides the viewer Shifts in technique, technologies and topics are context and everyday lived experience. This in turn Postmodernism disrupted the traditional hierar- for its assembly in the style of IKEA. An artwork typical of contemporary painting. The conceptu- is mirrored both in the materials and formal pro- chy and through its emphasis on pluralism called no longer has to be purchased. You simply have to alisation of this traditional medium is ubiquitous, cedures selected, as well as in the themes of the into question the criteria by which we reach pop into a DIY shop, pick up a few necessary parts even though it retains the tactility and materiality works themselves. Many other artists also concen- evaluations. This makes it diffi cult to specify the and put them together yourself at home. Other that is the consequence of the immediate contact trated on how to create art using run-of-the-mill predominant creative opinion of the second half of artists also undermined established principles for between painter and canvas. In most digital media resources rather than depicting the commonplace. the 90s. However, we can point to one of the most the creation of art. Tomáš Vaněk simply sprays his this quality has been lost, and for this reason paint- To this end they abandoned traditional artistic me- symptomatic attitudes of this period in the works works onto the wall. However, he does not draw on ing remains attractive and important for a certain dia and began to formulate new creative methods of the young generation of post-conceptualist the aesthetic of graffi ti, but is interested in com- part of the scene. Personalities who had made a infl uenced by everyday activities, in which they artists such as Michal Pěchouček, Ján Mančuška, monplace objects and subjects. A sprayed switch used functional items and cheap, easily accessible Krištof Kintera, Tomáš Vaněk and Zbyněk Baladrán. or coat hanger with a fabricated shadow might materials. This position then leads directly to the It is visible here that, despite the advancement of comprise a work. Michal Pěchouček embroiders development of post-conceptual art at the begin- globalisation eradicating the most sensitive diff er- certain of his pictures, and the recent series Time ning of the 21st century. The radical dematerialisa- ences between East and West, Czech society is for Bed (2009) is completely sewn. It is clear that, tion of the artwork typical for the neo-avant-garde not going to surrender its post-totalitarian identify though this does not directly involve “ostalgie” (i.e. of the 1960s and 70s was not to be seen on the without a fi ght. As opposed to the spectacular the German term for nostalgia for life under the Czech scene even at the end of the 90s, but in aesthetic of the fi rst post-revolutionary generation, communist system), we must nevertheless look for the new millennium is defi nitively superseded by the work of these artists, who appeared on the the sources of this new style in the totalitarian and a new emphasis on the visual aspect of a work Czech art scene in the second half of the 90s, aims post-totalitarian experience. and its presentation. An example of this would be for intimacy, both through the formats used and This generation operated in the interstice between modes of expression. Many of the works are de- institutional cultural structures, which budgetary liberately made not to look like art. They are often cuts had left in a critical situation, and an as yet fashioned from cheap materials lying around the poorly developed private gallery sector. It created home, using methods which we could dub “high- its own scene, not only in Prague, but in Brno, [19] František Matoušek – The Rolling Stones, 2012, minded DIY”. The roots of this strategy go back to Ostrava, Ústí nad Labem and Olomouc. At the turn ripped denim, 30×50 cm the pre-revolutionary period. The members of this of the millennium young artists and curators estab- generation spent their early childhood watching on lished small alternative gallery spaces in empty name for themselves at the end of the 90s, such as their parents and friends used their own ingenu- apartments, derelict shops, clubs, coff ee bars, or as Jakub Špaňhel, František Matoušek, Petr Malina, ity to refashion their homes and cottages, impro- the vacant premises of various institutions. The Jan Šerých, Josef Bolf and Vít Soukup, are now vising as they went along, creating original results operations of these spaces often relied on the self- joined by painters of the Noughties generation, e.g. and using all kinds of ersatz materials in place of sacrifi ce of their operators, the occasional grant, Evžen Šimera, Daniel Pitín, Jakub Hošek, Ladislava materials which were unavailable on the socialist and above all the enthusiasm of the community Gadžiová, Luděk Rathouský, Jaromír Novotný, market. For the generation of the second half of which formed around them. Many of them soon Alice Nikitinová and the duo Vasil Artamonov and the 90s it is completely natural to use traditional, disappeared for various reasons, while some were Alexej Klyuykov. Since the 1990s Czech artists have hand-crafted methods (embroidery, needlework, transformed into stable institutions that continue added a host of new and updated approaches to cutting, pasting). Zbyněk Baladrán created the to operate today. classical procedures. The traditional brush is now joined by the spraycan and paint roller. Artists op- erating under pseudonyms such as Masker, Point The beginning of the 21st century and Pasta bring the energy of graffi ti and street art to the Czech art scene. An important role is played The turn of the millennium was accompanied by by cultural centres run by artists, e.g. Trafačka and the end of the optimistic phase of globalisation. Meetfactory. Alongside these the Czech art scene Upon acceding to the European Union in 2004 is supplemented by private initiatives such as the the Czech Republic was defi nitively integrated into Wanieck Gallery, Divus, Karlin Studios, Futura, or the Western world and began to face the same institutions of a new character such as tranzit. problems. During the fi rst decade of the 21st century, on the Czech as on the global art The Czech art scene around 2000 was dominated

scene, a host of diff erent creative opinions and by what are known as “unobtrusive tendencies”, [20] Eva Koťátková – From the Stories from the Living Room approaches emerge. in which young artists sought inspiration in the series, 2010, drawing and collage on paper, 42 × 29,7 cm pioneering work of Jiří Kovanda. Just as Kovanda The comprehensive and intermedial character of had done in his installations from the turn of the the work of Eva Koťátková or Ján Mančuška. Eva art at the beginning of the century aff ected tradi- 1970s and 80s, so these young artists elevated the Koťátková [20] takes as her starting point her im-

[18] Zbyněk Baladrán – Cactuses, 1999, combined techniques, tional media too. The image in its various manifes- principle of imperceptibility to the level of a crea- mediate surroundings, i.e. home, family and school, photo ©Zuzana Štefková tations still dominates the art scene, though these tive imperative. At the end of the 90s the work of as well as the rituals and patterns of behaviour 35 CZECH ART OF THE 20TH AND 21ST CENTURIES CZECH CONTEMPORARY ART GUIDE 36

to which this specifi c community is bound. For often entails exhibition projects that cross freely The re-politicisation of Czech art at the turn of Labuda. Many of these artists address gender Koťátková art is an instrument for interrogating from artistic practice to the history of art or social the century is a consequence of the activation of inequality and the problems of social exclusion her own position within these mechanisms and a and historical research. This is refl ected in the form individuals and groups who began more and more or minorities. These themes also appear in works fi eld within which to analyse them. She creates her in which their art is presented, which can be text, to address the problems of society and transfor- by feminist artists such as Lenka Klodová, who is own structured wholes and systems that comprise video or installation. mational politics through their works and projects. concerned with pornography, Milena Dopitová, or items, scenes and situations that are intimately The group Pode Bal made a splash with its project Lucie Tkáčová and Aneta Mona Chisa, a duo work- known but transposed into a new sequence and If we attempt an overview of the aesthetic of the GEN – Galerie etablované nomenklatury / GEN – ing in both the Czech Republic and Slovakia. context. These take the form of paintings, col- turn of the century, we fi nd several predominant Gallery of Established Nomenclature (2000). The lages, objects, photographs or videos, from which themes. The procedures established by modern- project comprises 36 portraits of persons who Sculpture in its pure form plays almost no part in Koťátková creates greater aggregates of imagina- ism and postmodernism of the 20th century had previously collaborated with the StB (State the work of the Noughties generation. What pre- tive installations. Ján Mančuška also moved in the continue to be subject to formal development. Security Service) and KGB but who continued dominates is objectivity, work with non-traditional direction of complex conceptual installations at These procedures are linked with traditional and to be active in public aff airs after the revolution materials, and multimedia combinations. The new the beginning of the 21st century. In works such current topics and are unequivocally dominated and occupied important places in Czech society. sculpture of the turn of the century is best repre- by conceptual methods and new, at present The portraits included biographical information sented by artists such as Krištof Kintera, Dominik digital media. An important phenomenon of the informing the viewer of the activities of each of Lang and Pavla Sceranková. DIY and more current Czech scene is art based on photography. these fi gures both prior to and after the revolu- Since the 1990s photography has broken free of tion. Pode Bal used advertising and marketing its “secondary” status and become a tool used in strategies in its work and did not hesitate to con- front contentious political questions. Along with Kamera Skura, Pode Bal is the fi rst Czech group to appear as an anonymous collective. Although we know the names of individual members, this is not important as far as the group’s activities are con- cerned. Traditional coalitions of individuals, such as the groups UB 12, Trasa, Tvrdohlaví and 12/15, took on a collective creative identity at the turn of the millennium. How this new principle on the Czech art scene developed during the fi rst decade

[21] Ján Mančuška – The Space Behind the Wall, 2004 of the 21st century is clear from the example of the Rafani group. Without the slightest irony this [24] Krištof Kintera – My Light is Your Life (model: Shiva Samurai as Prostor za zdí / The Space Behind the Wall group underpinned its collectivism by wearing 5kw/50Hz), 2009, old lamps, cables, electro (2004) [21], While I walked (2005) and True story uniforms and maintaining the absolute anonym- (2005) Mančuška worked not only with space but ity of individual members. As well as Rafani and recently light play an important role in the work

above all with texts providing a commentary on [22] Jiří Thýn – Untitled, Test strip, series 50% Grey, 2009, b/w Pode Bal, other groups such as Guma Guar and of Krištof Kintera. His monumental My Light is the state of aff airs. He managed to transform even photograph on baryta paper, 70×100 cm Your Life [24] (model: Shiva Samurai 5kw / 50Hz) a banal description into an extraordinary story by (2009) or the memorial to suicides beneath Nusle means of both his narrative style and an imagina- the most cutting-edge artistic forms. Many young Bridge in Prague entitled Of One’s Own Volition – tive visual form. He worked with the shadow, size photographers, such as Jiří Thýn or the duo Alek- Memento Mori (2009–2011) are amongst the best and form of the text. In several instances the text is sandra Vajd and Hynek Alt, are interested in the works created over recent years. If we accept the written on the wall, while in others it is printed on medium of photography as such, in its technical, fact that the materials of new sculpture may be strips of rubber, punched out of aluminium, or cut historical and social contiguities. In his cycle O streetlights, extension leads or mountain bikes, we into wooden boards or metal plates. Text becomes fotografi i / On Photography (2009) Jiří Thýn [22] can include Krištof Kintera’s works in the category both symbol and object. Other conceptual artists thematizes the technical procedures of photog- of sculpture. If not, we have to look to other terms working with text during the Noughties include raphy. In the series entitled 50% šedé / 50% Grey from the glossary of 20th century art, such as Zbyněk Baladrán, Jiří Skála and Tomáš Svoboda. he disrupts the illusory eff ect of photography by object, installation or environment. In many of their projects they both draw on and incorporating elements referencing the process of Since the start of the Noughties, Dominik Lang deconstruct the medium of fi lm. They examine the the origins of analogue photography. He incorpo- has made sculptural interventions in his surround- non-linear reading of a story and new forms of rates test strips into large-scale photographs or ing environment. A discreet shift in scale and installation and performance. Toward the end of uses coloured strips as part of the scene depicted materials suggests the aesthetic of the “unob-

his prematurely terminated creative life Mančuška that professional photographers use to monitor [23] Jan Kotík – Speculation Study, 2006, upholstery, mixed trusive tendency” and links up to the work of the was even moving into the sphere of theatre. the colours during processing. He creates glass media, 80×130×90 cm generation of the second half of the nineties. At Zbyněk Baladrán is also one of the protagonists negatives that he then presents along with framed the same time it presages Lang’s criticism and of the “documentary turn” on the Czech scene, photograms featuring various shades of grey. Ztohoven address current political topics. Impor- deconstruction of the art industry and its institu- employing pseudo-documentary procedures that An important trend at the turn of the century is tant pioneers of engaged art during the Nough- tions. With his monumental Pohyblivá stěna / we are familiar with from archives, archaeology the renewed activism of Czech art. The art of the ties include Jan Jakub Kotík [23], Martin Zet, Moving Walls (2006) and Místo pro diváka / Space or journalism. Barbora Klímová and many other 1990s had been more or less apolitical, with politi- Tamara Moyzes, Michal Šiml, Petr Motyčka, Zdena for the Viewer (2009) Lang moved sculpture to artists also draw on these procedures. Their output cally engaged art appearing only sporadically. Kolečková, Ondřej Brody, Viktor Frešo and Radim the boundary of architecture. New sculpture is a 37 CZECH ART OF THE 20TH AND 21ST CENTURIES CZECH CONTEMPORARY ART GUIDE 38

kind of hybrid of several media, a claim best borne In the mid-Noughties Černický created a cycle sound. They link up the video image with installa- to make this marginal zone visible. They may take out by the work of Pavla Sceranková, who creates of videos entitled ABS [25], in which he works tions and photographs, thus creating a comprehen- all kinds of diff erent forms, from sprayed interven- demanding, mobile objects out of wood and other with invisible aspects of the image. One of the sive video installation. An example of this would tions in public spaces to gallery audio-situations. simple materials. Though works such as Umzug videos off ers the viewer a shot of a platform of the be the video installation by Jiří Skála and Zbyněk One of Tomáš Vaněk’s activities that has achieved (Nastěhování. Vystěhování) / Umzug (Moving in, Prague metro, which gradually fi lls up with people. Baladrán entitled Archivář / Archivist (2009) or the status of classic is the public collection of Moving out) (2007) and Jdi pryč. Vrať se / Go Each of these persons is thinking or worried about Ján Mančuška’s Odlesk / Refl ection (2009). Alena sentences – Particip no. 39 (2004). Since 2004 Away, Come Back (2009) have a sculptural qual- something, or is simply hanging around. Along Kotzmannová combined video and photography Vaněk has been collecting sentences describing ity, they only acquire further signifi cance when with his collaborators Černický conducted a survey in an interesting way in several of her installations, simple situations each one of us knows from their manipulated. The artist’s physical actions are an e into the thoughts of each person in the image. Af- for instance in Famke (1999) [26], in which she own life. For instance: “When I use adhesive tape, ssential part of these projects, which she captures ter they left the shot he asked each one what they counterposes a photograph of a drowsing women I can never fi nd the end of it.” He then presents on video. Sceranková’s work spills over into sculp- had been thinking about. In post-production he with the landscape passing by the window of a these sentences in various forms. He sprays some ture, action art and video art. then incorporated the textual thoughts back into the image, which unwind in the form of a white The use of media in the 21st century is more and strip from the head of each passenger until there more thought out. Conceptual and performance are so many of them they cover the entire scene. elements, photography, video, painting, objects Detailed work with video can also be found in the and installations can all feature in individual pro- work of Marek Ther. During the Noughties Ther jects. The combination of photographs, video and virtually turned himself into a fi lm director. He ex- life performance, which in the work of Jiří Surůvka plores the possibility of an acted story and works in the 1990s seemed frivolous, is now regarded The resourcefully with both narrative and the visual. His use of media in the 21st century is more and more videos thematize the space of alternative gender thought out. Conceptual and performance ele- orientations, as well as issues surrounding Sudeten ments, photography, video, painting, objects and Germany. However, above all they are a pure visual installations can all feature in individual projects. experience. The combination of photographs, video and life performance, which in the work of Jiří Surůvka in The work of both Jiří Černický and Marek Ther the 1990s seemed frivolous, is now regarded as a makes it clear that on the Czech art scene in the

given by younger generations of artists. Perhaps 21st century video appears in a variety of roles. This [26] Alena Kotzmannová – Famke, 1999, video installation, [27] Tomáš Vaněk – Particip no. 142 (drawing of the fi eld the only diff erence is that the Noughties genera- includes not only self-contained video stories, but photo © Martin Polák of vision of employees of the Slovak National Gallery), 2011 tion pay heed to technical perfection and either also video performance and videos documenting have a professional mastery of their medium or more extensive projects. The form in which video is moving train, or in Cesta do háku / Path to the of them on the wall using stencils, prints others on cooperate with someone who provides the techni- presented is similarly varied. It might be shown in Hook (2000), in which she projected the same fi lm paper, and just as importantly requests viewers to cal backup. The turn-of-the-century DIY aesthetic cinemas, presented on television, on the internet, onto a large-scale black-and-white photograph of send him more examples. has given way during the Noughties to profes- as part of a projection in a gallery, or as a video a man standing in a tram, but with both movement The remarkable shift of contemporary art into sional precision. And if handmade elements are still installation. During the Noughties documentary and time now contained within the video format. extra-artistic spheres is described by current present, they will be consummately constructed video that simply records events, as was still com- theory from various angles. As well as activism products rather than botched jobs. The work of mon during the 1990s, disappears. If video does and engagement, terms include an expanded Eva Koťátková, Ján Mančuška and Jiří Černický play a documentary role, at the beginning of the Current situation cultural fi eld, relational aesthetics (Nicolas Bour- exemplifi es this trend. Since the mid-90s Černický century it is presented as one of several possible riaud) or participative art (Claire Bishop). Many has moved freely between painting and objects, resources alongside photography, drawing, object, At present the Czech art scene is a multi-layered contemporary artists work with social and political via performance to video. The professionalization text, etc. Video performance occupies a special system of state, private, commercial and non-profi t reality and use methods and procedures that are referred to above is most clear in his video works. role during this period. We fi nd it in the work of galleries, auction houses and media. Several gener- characteristic of other disciplines, although we Michal Pěchouček, Eva Jiřička, Daniela Baráčková, ations of artists work within this system, including fi nd many points of contact with conceptual art Eva Koťátková and Pavla Sceranková. Many of their the youngest generation just leaving the country’s of the 1960s and 70s. For instance, Kateřina Šedá, fi lms are multilayered, with physical performance, several art schools. Looking at the individual media Tomáš Vaněk, Rafani and Barbora Klímová draw conceptual narrative elements and the manipula- and their hybrids present on the art scene of the the reality around them into the world of art. They tion of the medium itself rubbing shoulders to- fi rst decade of the 21st century, the observer will do not simply reproduce the world, but create gether. Perhaps the most comprehensive example soon come up against artistic activities which are new situations, micro-utopias as Claire Bishop calls of this is Michal Pěchouček’s video entitled Sběratel very diffi cult to grasp. Their forms seem to defy them, in which they use human relationships and / Collector (2003). Pěchouček himself features in stable categorisation. In 1999 Tomáš Vaněk came needs as their raw material. A typical example of the video as he gradually introduces large pictures up with the term particip [27] to describe them. this approach would be Kateřina Šedá’s projects. to an invisible collector. The story is painted on As he says, particips utilise symbiotic and parasitic Her creative method on the intersection of the ar- these pictures, which are revealed frame by frame norms, relationships, in the sense of connecting tistic concept, along with consummate production as on a fi lm strip. The last image contains the themselves to something that is established, given values and personal presence in communication closing credits of the video we have just watched. and commonplace and is thus located on the with people, could not be called a performance, Other artists experiment with diff erent projection margins of everyday perception. Particips have no happening or environment. Through her projects [25] Jiří Černický – ABS video methods, often in parallel, and work with space and ambition to resolve anything, but simply attempt she creates a complex social “sculpture”, which 39 CZECH ART OF THE 20TH AND 21ST CENTURIES CZECH CONTEMPORARY ART GUIDE 40

fi nds its culmination in the documented event. She a circular object made of various materials laid Nicolas Bourriaud has compared contemporary touches reality as experienced over a long-term out precisely in accordance with the fences of the artists to DJs. At their mixing desk they freely horizon that includes the period both before and houses in Brno-Líšeň. As well as Kateřina Šedá’s handle forms that we can trace back through after the event. Šedá communicates with individu- projects a range of other works are making their postmodernism and conceptual art of the sixties als, undermines their stereotypes and manages to presence felt on the Czech art scene that are dif- to interwar modernism. The fi nal artefact ceases persuade them that an unusual collective event fi cult to classify using the established terms of art to be an isolated tangible whole, but is bound makes sense, and not only within the context of history. In this respect we could cite, for instance, strongly to the context in which it arose and be- art. As far back as her early work Tady nic není / the way that members of the Rafani group joined comes more of an activity that is presented within There’s Nothing Here (2003), she persuaded all the the Communist Part of Bohemia and Moravia in the framework of the art world. However, it might inhabitants of a small Moravian village to spend My / We (2002–2003), and for a year became part equally well operate within other contexts too. one day of their lives together in accordance with of the Czech political scene and as young people Bourriaud even compares art to a team sport. He a timetable given in advance that was based on without experience of the communist regime knocks it off its pedestal and incorporates it into their typical Saturday activities (a morning shop- prior to 1989 found out what it meant to own a ordinary life. ping trip to the local supermarket, sweeping the communist ID card. Or there is the project entitled pavement in front of their house, lunch with the Výměna rukopisu / Exchange of Handwriting During the Noughties art does not involve the family, etc.). The resulting documentary captures (2006) by Jiří Skála, who had two volunteers teach production of items for consumption, but a space not only this unbelievable happening, but also the one another each other’s handwriting and thus for transformation. In previous decades it would reaction of the local people, who began to think swap part of their identity, a project which is again have been diffi cult to view the projects of Kateřina of their lives in diff erent ways. Šedá used similar diffi cult to describe using ordinary art-history ter- Šedá, Rafani, Dominik Lang and Tomáš Vaňek as techniques in other projects, for instance Furt minology. Problems occur in respect of other key art. These days art is more and more diffi cult to dokola / Over and Over (2008) [28]. The project fi gures of the Noughties. encompass and grasp. It is complicated not only is based in the environs of her native Líšeň, these by its operations, but by its themes and forms. It days a suburb of Brno, the second largest city Artists not only refl ect their situation outwardly recycles and appropriates, though instead of terms in the Czech Republic and the capital of Mora- but inwardly too. Criticism of the institutional situ- like “appropriation” and “collage” it uses terms like via. Detached houses in Czech municipalities are ation and the deconstruction of the art industry is “sampling” or “remix”. Artists use more and more separated by high fences and walls, which isolate one of the important aspects of art at the begin- complex methods that they take from the worlds their inhabitants from their neighbours and enclose ning of the century. Dominik Lang, for instance, of technology, business and social life, and politics. them within their privacy. To a certain extent this has thematized the operations of the art scene They thematize the present and the past, archive, is the consequence of the totalitarian experience. and its more or less concealed principles. Since conceptualise, and narrate. They create new situ- Šedá attempted to overcome this. For six months 2008 he has been creating a Jmenný seznam ations, processes and information. They hybridise she persuaded all the neighbours in her street to návštěvníků / List of Names of Visitors to his exhi- traditional media through infi nite combinations of become participants in the project. On a specifi ed bitions, which also functions as an artwork. During new materials, forms and procedures. However, day she then climbed over all the fences with the the Noughties he implemented a range of projects radical changes are taking place in the sphere of assistance of the assembled neighbours. The pro- in which he toys with the institutional context and new media too. Digital technology is changing ject was presented at the international Berlin Bien- literally deconstructs the space of the gallery and irrevocably the face of the image and binary code nale 2008, which Šedá took her neighbours to on its operations. From projects such as Pohyblivá is more and more engulfi ng the analogue visual a special bus trip. Using various aids that they had stěna / Moving Wall (2006), Bez určení místa / forms of the 20th century. We are becoming used brought with them these neighbours then climbed Without Specifying the Place (2007) and Monu- to virtual images, to their dematerialisation, and to over mock-ups of their own fences, which created ment (2007), in which he worked directly with the ever-increasing infl ux of such images. We are the gallery space and linked it to the surround- living through a change of paradigm, the conse- ing world, he moved onto to more sophisticated quences of which are hard to anticipate. projects that work directly with the structures and functions of gallery operations. In 2009 he prepared a project for the Gallery of Fine Arts in Zlín entitled Výběr / Selection (2009). Each of the 23 gallery employees was to select their favourite work from the depository. This was then exhibited for a week at a time with the name of the person who chose it alongside the caption Dominik Lang – Selection (2009). Lang’s projects are typical for post-conceptual art of the start of the century. They penetrate beneath the surface of phenom- ena, work with their signifying character, but do not seek recourse in text. Everything they need to say they do so purely using creative speech. They are activities that link individual media, formal [28] Kateřina Šedá – Over and Over, 2008 procedures and worlds of signifi cance. 41 PROFILES OF ARTISTS CZECH CONTEMPORARY ART GUIDE 42

PROFILES Jiří Kolář types of visual structures. He created spatial ob- concerned in an original way with form, colour and (*1914, Protivín, +2002, Prague) jects covered in bright colours that in themselves their mutual relationships. OF ARTISTS Co-founder of the artistic as- introduced an element of variability. He gradually www.zdeneksykora.cz sociations Group 42, UB and expanded the way he thought of the basic ele- Křižovatka. From 1980 Kolář ments of a picture, of surface, line and colour, with Stanislav Kolíbal (*1925, Orlová) lived in Paris, where he sup- a temporal dimension. After phases of conceptual A graduate of the Academy of ported the publication of Revue and minimalist art, he moved more and more in the Arts, Architecture and Design, K. He participated at Documenta IV in Kassel. He direction of neo-expressionism. Some of his estate the Scenography Studio at experimented with various forms of collage based is managed by the Jiří Švestka Gallery. DAMU. Since the end of the on Dada principles, Art Informel and constructivist 50s he has linked up formal tendencies. His working methods included rollage, Karel Malich elements to the expressive chiasmage, confrontage, etc. However, he always (*1924, Holice v Čechách) content of a work in a highly original way. He uses worked with paper covered either with text or Malich studied at the Faculty of the language of abstraction and geometry, with reproductions of artworks, events or news items, Education of Charles University references to minimalism, conceptualism, and the which he constructively crumpled, destroyed and and the Academy of Fine Arts Arte Povera movement. An important develop- glued together again. He erased certain parts of in Prague. He was a member of ment was his cooperation with contemporary well known pictures or covered certain areas with the Hollar Society of Graphic architects and his move toward the perspective black tape. He often covered these fragments Art and the Křižovatka Group, and was exhibited at of abstract language. He was attracted by the with common items such as washboard, eggs and the Czechoslovak pavilion at the Vienna Biennale procedural qualities of abstract sculptures and bottles. His work often displays a sense of play, but (1970, 1995). From the end of the 1950s his work the problematic of stability, instability, the fall, and above all is a testimony to the situation of man. became more and more abstract and geometrical. the convergence of organic and inorganic forms. He began to work with monochrome surfaces and In time he began to examine the principle of time, Běla Kolářová his work did not refl ect external reality. In the 60s duration and extinction. His year-long residence in (*1923, Terezín, +2011, Prague) he was involved with collages, and this led him West Berlin (1988/89) saw a transformation in his A pioneer of Czechoslovak pho- to reliefs and to spatial sculptures. He created his work. He now uses a more expressive geometrical tography. In 2007 Kolářová was fi rst spatial models of clouds, three-dimensional language of straight lines, circles and points of exhibited at Documenta 12 in wire compositions that, regardless of the inspira- intersection, through which he looks for order and Kassel. The fi rst large group of tion of nature, retained their own technical and concordance. her works comprises what she magical character. His spatial sculptures gradually herself called artifi cial negatives. She printed small became dramatically thicker, with the structures of Milan Grygar (*1926, Zvolen) items she found around her in a layer of paraffi n the wires resembling cosmic lines of force. Malich Grygar graduated from the on a piece of cellophane. She soon moved over thinks intensively about his own system of vision. Academy of Arts, Architecture to circular forms created without any negative He perceives his internal cosmos both from within and Design. His work is char- as recordings of the movement of a light source. and without and makes written notes. He is repre- acterised by a highly original This was followed by photographs of assemblages sented by the Jiří Sklenář Gallery. concept of the relationship comprising the compositional organisation of com- between image, sound and mon objects. She often integrated very personal Zdeněk Sýkora space. He gravitates toward free expression and themes into her material assemblages. A frequent (*1920, Louny, + 2011 Louny) work with controlled randomness and in a highly theme of her work is that of positive/negative, the Sýkora studied art education unique way combines an interest in the audio and tension of antitheses as two distinctive entities and descriptive geometry at visual aspects of an artwork. Since the mid-60s creating a whole. Her work displays a sense of play, the Faculty of Education of he has been creating acoustic drawings that are deformation of the original meaning, and humour. Charles University in Prague. In the consequence of the performance process, 1963 he was co-founder of the during which technical instruments move across Jan Kotík Křižovatka Group and in 1968 participated at Doc- the surface of paper. The role of the artist is thus (*1916, Trutnov, +2002 Berlin) umenta in Kassel. In 2005 he received the Herbert- relegated to controlling partially random pro- A member of Group 42. Kotík Boeckl-Preis lifetime achievement award. Sýkora cesses. Alongside visual works an audio recording participated at the Czecho- is a representative of Czech geometric painting. In is created or photographic and fi lm documenta- slovak pavilion at Expo´58 in the mid-60s he was one of the fi rst in the world to tion. Over the next few decades Grygar developed Brussels and from 1969 lived incorporate the computer into preparation of an a specifi c concept of the relationship between in Berlin. Hi work was under- artwork. In the 60s he used computers in accord- sound and image in many, often very distinct pinned by a deep intellectualism and wide-ranging ance with precise rules and sought the position relationship analogies. He is represented by the Jiří knowledge and always refl ected current events. of elements within their structures. However, from Sklenář Gallery. He worked hard on composition and incorporated 1973 the computer was simply the source of ran- an internal system into the surface of his paint- dom number sequences that Sýkora incorporated ings. The gradual removal of the canvas from the into his new system. This system gave rise to line wall and its development in space saw a rethinking pictures that he painted until his death. Though of the conceptual relationship between diff erent he worked with systems, he remained a painter 43 PROFILES OF ARTISTS CZECH CONTEMPORARY ART GUIDE 44

Jan Švankmajer (*1934, Prague) Jiří Kovanda (*1953, Prague) Arts in Vienna, or the Islandský project / Iceland František Skála (*1956, Prague) Švankmajer studied at the Kovanda is head of the Project (1993), in which she made an underwater Skála graduated from the Acad- Academy of Arts, Architecture Performance Studio of the intercontinental mountain range visible by means emy of Arts, Architecture and and Design and the Academy Faculty of Art and Design of of laser. Design and is a member of the of Fine Arts. He is best known the Jan Evangelista Purkyně www.jetelova.de Tvrdohlaví group. He won the as a fi lm director and animator University in Ústí nad Labem. Jindřich Chalupecký Award in and the leading representative He is regularly exhibited at Vladimír Skrepl 1991 and represented the Czech of late Czech surrealism. He began by creating prestigious institutions and shows around the (*1955, Jihlava) Republic at the 45th Biennale in Venice in 1993, assemblages and had a close relationship with Art world, e.g. Secession in Vienna, Tate Modern Skrepl graduated from the where he exhibited a set of diaries written during Informel. He started working with fi lm in the 60s London, São Paulo Biennial 2012, and Documenta Department of Art History and the course of his month-long walk from the Czech and since then his oeuvre has been closely linked 12. He made a name for himself on the global art Ethnography of the Philo- Republic to Venice. He most often creates objects with distinctive, highly original fi lms, in which he scene with his events and interventions from the sophical Faculty of Masaryk in which he combines natural materials with works with the themes of childhood, food, dreams, 70s and 80s, which were featured in projects University in Brno and as a components from old, non-functioning appliances. eroticism, and puppet theatre. As well as puppets charting and incorporating the art of the former painter is self-taught. He won He combines a serious approach to his art with and other props, which feature large in his surreal- Eastern bloc back into an international con- the Jiří Kovanda Prize in 2007 and the Michal elements of satire, something borne out by his ist fi lms, he has created cycles of graphic designs text (East Art Map, Body and the East, Parallel Ranný Prize in 2009, and since 1994 has worked membership of the art group B.K.S. (Bude konec that he calls his Švankmajersbilderlexikon, i.e. mys- Actions). His minimalist events and interventions at the Academy of Fine Arts, where he heads the světa / The End of the World is Nigh). His sensitive tifying, pseudo-scientifi c illustrations of fantastic in public or private environments were based on Painting II Studio. Skrepl arrived at painting via his relationship with nature is also evidenced in his creatures. In 2011 the City Gallery Prague organised a detailed scenario and could be seen as pro- theoretical background (from 1981 to 1991 he was illustrations of children’s books. He is also a musi- an extensive retrospective of his work. tocols of a general record. They were often so curator at the City Gallery Prague). He created a cian and dancer. His most successful exhibition in subtle as to be almost imperceptible and diff er characteristic style featuring the layering of paint terms of numbers of visitors was his solo exhibition Milan Knížák (*1940, Pilsen) signifi cantly from older Czech Fluxus activities and a clear, garish colour scheme. His commonest at the Rudolfi num Gallery in 2004, for which he Knížák is a member of the art or from those of his contemporaries. From the subject matters are slightly deformed fi gures with won the award for Personality of the Year. In 2012 group Aktual and since 1990 has mid-80s under the infl uence of postmodernism elements of caricature, which can be shocking to the Museum of Art in Olomouc devoted a large been working at the Academy Kovanda devoted himself to drawing and paint- an unsuspecting viewer. Skrepl’s pictures give the exhibition to his work. of Fine Arts, where he was dean ing, and later the object. In the latter instance he impression of having been created without prepa- www.frantaskala.com from 1990 to 1996. At present reworked the minimalism and conceptualism of ration (as though the only preparation was on the he heads the Intermedia School the 70s, shifting them to their current position canvas itself), and gesture and topical expression Jan Merta (*1952, Šumperk) Studio and from 1999 to 2011 was director of the of transience, ephemerality and DIY. In doing play an important role. Merta graduated from the National Gallery in Prague. His artistic activities so he heralded the unobtrusive tendency of the Academy of Fine Arts. He often feature performance and short exhibitions, generation at the turn of the millennium. He is Petr Nikl (*1960, Zlín) arrived with a bang on the and during the 60s he organised public events represented by the gb agency Paris, Krobath, Nikl graduated from the Czech art scene in the mid-80s during which he sought new expressive devices Vienna and Berlin, and the Andrew Kreps Gallery, Academy of Fine Arts. He is with the arrival of the genera- and forms of creating art. He is known for his New York. a member of the Tvrdohlaví tion of Tvrdohlaví, though he self-presentation and provocation. For instance, in Group and winner of the himself is several years older than the members his Demonstrace jednoho / Demonstration of One Magdaléna Jetelová Jindřich Chalupecký Award of this group. It is diffi cult to categorise his work: (1964) he lay on the ground and placed a sheet of (*1946, Semily) (1995), as well as several prizes each picture is created on an entirely independ- paper next to him with the words “I would ask pas- Jetelová studied at the Acad- for most beautiful book of the ent basis, and its subject matter, composition and sersby to crow if possible when walking past this emy of Fine Arts. In 1985 she year (1997, 2001, 2002). He is also a curator, the realisation aim to off er a message and to create place”. In 1968 he travelled to New York, where he emigrated to Germany, where best known of these projects being the interactive a distinctive universe. The subject matter of his participated in events organised by Fluxus and be- she still lives. She has lectured exhibitions Hnízda her / Nest of Games (2000) pictures tends to be individual objects and solitary came the group’s treasurer. He later expanded his at many Germany universities, and Orbis pictus held in the Rudolfi num Gallery, fi gures freed from a literal depiction of seen reality. expressive resources with pictures (during the 80s) and is at present professor at the Munich Acad- actor, singer and instrumentalist, and the author The relationship between the visual subject and and sculpture (during the 90s), and also designs emy. In 1987 she participated at Documenta 8 in of idiosyncratic poetry and small prose works that its space becomes a neuralgic interface of the jewellery, fashion collections as well as collecting Kassel. She made a name for herself in the 70s he himself illustrates. He entered the art scene as a painter’s strategy. A tension arises between the and documenting puppets. and 80s with her monumental, archaic sculp- painter, and exhibited his fi rst works in the 80s at realistic and the abstract. This is accentuated by www.milanknizak.com tures. Her engagement with architecture and the student exhibitions forming part of the Confronta- means of Merta’s transparent style of painting. He relationship between object and space is clear tions series. Nikl’s paintings are characterised by a is represented by the Johnen Gallery in Berlin, the even in this early work. She gradually began monochrome background and realistic portrayals Rüdiger Schöttle Gallery in Munich, and the Martin working with specifi c spaces, uncovering their of heads, bodies and characters. In several pictures Janda Gallery in Vienna. suppressed history and attempting to retrieve he does without colour altogether and works only their lost memories. In her ephemeral light instal- in black and white. His work features a playful lations she uses fi re and later laser. One of her temperament that has made it popular amongst best known projects is the cycle Domestikace the general public. pyramidy / Domestication of the Pyramid(1992), www.petrnikl.cz in which a pyramid with a lava surface inter- sected the premises of the Museum of Applied 45 PROFILES OF ARTISTS CZECH CONTEMPORARY ART GUIDE 46

Václav Stratil (*1950, Olomouc) Vasil Artamonov Josef Bolf (*1971, Prague) Jiří Černický Stratil graduated from the (*1980, Solnecnogorsk, RUS) Bolf graduated from the Acad- (*1966, Ústí nad Labem) Philosophical Faculty of Palacký and emy of Fine Arts in Prague. Černičký is a graduate of the University in Olomouc in 1975. In Alexey Klyuykov He is a member of the group Academy of Arts, Architecture the 80s and start of the 90s he (*1983, Vladimir, RUS) Bezhlavý jezdec / Headless and Design in Prague and win- worked in Prague, though these Artamonov and Klyuykov are Horseman (1996–2004) and ner of the Jindřich Chalupecký days his name is more associat- graduates of the Academy of was voted 2010 Artist of the Award (1998). He is an all-round ed with Brno, where he has been a lecturer at the Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague. They have Year for his exhibitions Personal Disposition at artist who ventures into the spheres of installation, Faculty of Fine Arts since 1998, since 2003 as head been exhibiting as a duo since 2005 and in 2010 gallery hunt kastner and I Won’t See You Anymore performance, painting, sculpture and video. His of the Intermedia Studio. In 2010 he won the Prize they won the Jindřich Chalupecký Award. They are at a former funeral chapel in Volyně. From a formal works contain political themes, social engagement from Lukáš Jasanský and Martin Polák (The Art- members of the association of artists and theoreti- point of view he uses various media from painting and criticism, and often operate on the bounda- ist Has Got the Prize). Painting is combined with cians P.O.L.E.. They explore the processes of the and drawing via fi lm, sculpture to installation in ries of fi ction. This is exemplifi ed in one of his fi rst drawing, photography, happenings and musical social transformation of the cultures of the Eastern order to depict traumatically romantic content. events, now etched on the memory of the art performances in Stratil’s works. During the period bloc and make reference to historical styles as However, the focal point remains at the intersec- scene, Slzy pro Etiopii / Tears for Ethiopia (1993- of normalisation he created the oft-cited cycle of transparencies of ideologies and a depository of tion between painting and drawing. Though the 94), in which the artist gathered the tears of the demanding ballpoint pen drawings comprising ver- forms. Using installations, videos, pictures, murals scenes and individual characters catch our atten- inhabitants of a North Bohemian industrial town tical, diagonal and horizontal lines while working and objects they return the utopia of modernism tion for their charged emotionalism, the world that Ústí nad Labem in a container, which after several as night watchman. His work after the revolution is to everyday reality. They review the idea of the in- Bolf depicts is the place of our collective depres- months of travel he handed over in person to the dominated by paintings (see his series of paintings terwar and post-war avant-garde and its recupera- sion, neuroses and subcultural powerlessness. superior of a monastery in Ethiopia. Černický’s of foxes), and at present he alternates media, plac- tion by market neo-liberalism, pessimism and the This is a world after the mental end of the world, objects often seem like perfectly made industrial ing particular emphasis on performance. Stratil is loss of an alternative. The aesthetic emancipation childishly cruel, without vision or structure. Bolf is objects in which, however, something has been represented by the AD Astra Gallery. of Poldi Kladno industrial forms in their winning represented by hunt kastner artworks, Prague. deliberately and poorly transformed in comparison installation for the Jindřich Chalupecký Award with reality. Jiří Černický is represented by the Vladimír Kokolia (*1956, Brno) confi rmed the new seriousness of artistic visuality David Černý (*1967, Prague) Dvorak Sec Contemporary Gallery, Prague. Kokolia graduated from the and form for the contemporary social and political Černý graduated from the cernicky.com Academy of Fine Arts in 1981. concept. They are represented by the SVIT Gallery, Academy of Arts, Architecture He was the fi rst winner of the Prague. and Design in Prague. He won Federico Díaz (*1971, Prague) Jindřich Chalupecký Award in the Jindřich Chalupecký Award Díaz studied at the Academy 1990 and since 1992 heads the Zbyněk Baladrán in 2000 and is the creator of of Fine Arts and now leads graphic design studio at the (*1973, Prague) many large and controversial the Supermedia Studio at the Academy of Fine Arts. He is one Baladrán studied art history at sculptures in public places. He aims to provoke Academy of Arts, Architecture of the leading contemporary painters, as well as a Charles University in Prague the viewer and test aesthetic and social limits. He and Design in Prague. He graphic designer, draughtsman, poet and lyricist. and the Academy of Fine Arts appeared on the art scene at the end of the 80s represented the Czech Republic In the 80s and 90s he sang with the alterna- in Prague. He was co-founder of as a participant in the activities of Bullshitfi lm. He at EXPO 2010 in Shanghai with an exhibit entitled tive, experimental rock band E. He is part of the Display – a Space for Contem- and his friends created short-term installations and LacrimAu, a sensor-monitored object of a human Tvrdohlaví generation, though he has always been porary Art in 2001, is a curator for tranzitdisplay, performances on the border of soirée and artwork. tear covered by 24-carat gold. At the 54th a loner and does not often exhibit. His life is most has been exhibited at Manifesta 5, and was a He set off a nationwide discussion with his Pink Biennale in Venice the installation Outside Itself infl uenced by his interest in tai chi and nature. His member of the team of curators (tranzit.org) for Tank, in which he repainted a tank that stood as was created over four months, which comprises pictures most often depict various basic struc- Manifesto 8 (2010). Along with Vít Havránek he cu- a memorial to the Soviet Red Army (1991). He thousands of black pellets grouped into a huge tures that can be understood as models of natural rated the exhibition Monument to Transformation achieved international renown with his project En- form on the basis of the transformations of the processes, the arrangement of forces and the fl ow (City Gallery Prague, 2009), a three-year research tropa (2009), which he created to mark the Czech surrounding world in the premises of the Arsenale. of energy. The coloured lines of layered struc- project into social and political transformation. He presidency of the Council of the European Union. Díaz is interested in art that combines computer tures represent a universe of both connections is concerned on a practical and theoretical basis This sculpture, which depicts the stereotypes asso- generated forms and sound with work in space. and disruptions. They fi nd their analogy in nature, with the theme of artistic and cultural archives and ciated with individual EU Member States, provoked Multimedia installations and works relating to microcosmic formations, as well as in technical and the metaphor of archaeology forms the basis of much discussion in the CR and abroad. Černý is biomorphic architecture and site-specifi c projects digital confi gurations. his working method. He works with video, text and represented by the Dvorak Sec Contemporary are the central point of his oeuvre. His works are www.kokolia.cz installation. His work could be characterised as the Gallery, Prague. often interactive, the viewer becoming not only analytical search for the links between the past www.davidcerny.cz part of the artwork but directly infl uencing it and its construction in relation to predominant through the shape, appearance and movement of epistemological paradigms. He is represented by their body. hunt kastner artworks in Prague. www.fediaz.com www.zbynekbaladran.com 47 PROFILES OF ARTISTS CZECH CONTEMPORARY ART GUIDE 48

Milena Dopitová exhibition, documentation and mythologization. Alena Kotzmannová Dominik Lang (*1963, Šternberk) Their work is based on the dialectic of lucid clarity (*1974, Prague) (*1980, Prague) Dopitová studied at the Acad- and refi ned extremities. Jasanský and Polák are Kotzmannová studied at the Lang studied at the Academy emy of Fine Arts in Prague and represented by the SVIT Gallery, Prague. Academy of Arts, Architecture of Fine Arts in Prague and now teaches at the Academy of and Design in Prague. She in- heads the Sculpture Studio at Arts, Architecture and Design Krištof Kintera (*1973, Prague) troduced into a subsiding post- the Academy of Arts, Architec- in Prague. She was awarded a Kintera graduated from the modern tendency new themes ture and Design in Prague. He prize from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, INC. Academy of Fine Arts in Prague of temporal asynchrony, gaps in time-space, the created the project The Sleeping City for the 54th and the Michal Ranný Prize. She was a member of in 1999. He is the founding parallelism of worlds, and alternative and virtual Venice Biennale. He works within the framework of the group Pondělí, which at the start of the 90s member of the alternative reality. She conceptually analyses the medium of post-conceptual, minimalistic and contextual ten- represented a transition point between postmod- association Jednotka / Unit, photography and penetrates to the older temporal dencies and is interested in both the political level ernism and incipient post-conceptualism. After and co-founder of the NOD layer of imaginative black-and-white photography, of art in public space and institutional criticism. 1989 she participated at many exhibitions in pres- Universal Space in Prague. He which she subjects to open confrontation with General perceptions of space, the internal relation- tigious institutions around the world and interna- also occasionally works as a curator. His work is other media in the form of adjustment, installation, ships and the consequences of their realignment tional art shows. Her installations combine object, characterised by an interrogation of the role of art etc. However, she takes account of what remained play a fundamental role in this work. He exhibits photograph and later video, and refl ect the social and an analysis of the surrounding world and the of the genre of interwar panoramic photography space itself through construction (scaff olding) situation and position of women in a newly trans- system of consumer society. He creates technically (Klasika / Classic, 2001–2004). Rather than rep- and deconstruction (holes into the basement) and forming society. She examined the contemporary demanding objects and installations using every- resenting documentary research her series draw dictates psychophysical changes and other move- problematic of identity through her personal rela- day items, to which he gives a new signifi cance on fi lm direction and create an atmosphere that ment by means of space, a new perspective. He tionship with her sister and twin. This relationship and shifts them into a diff erent perspective. His stands in for narrative. Travel and the sea are im- works with the environment he knows: his home, featured in later themes, such as intimate hygiene best known works include Spotřebiče / Appliances portant aspects of her work. Alena Kotzmannová his father’s studio, the gallery, its past and present. and the ageing process. Furthermore, all other (1997-1998), the grumbling fi gures commenting on is represented by hunt kastner artworks, Prague. He investigates the historical stages of gallery spheres of her interest, namely the ageing process, contemporary events of Mluviči / Speakers (1999), www.kotzmannova.cz operations from exhibition halls and furniture to death, insecurity and violence involve general or the boy banging his head against a wall in the strategy of exhibiting, and reconstructs and phenomena that to begin with she exhibited as a Revolution (2005). His sculpture of a lamp entitled Eva Koťátková deviates from established artistic, institutional, contrast with the image of scientifi c method and Z vlastního rozhodnutí / Off His Own Bat located in (*1982, Prague) spatial and viewer-based plans. Dominik Lang is social research, though resolved with her custom- the park beneath Nusle Bridge that he dedicated Koťátková graduated from the represented by hunt kastner artworks, Prague, and ary personal participation. Milena Dopitová is to people who ended their lives by jumping from Academy of Arts, Architecture Krobath, Vienna and Berlin. represented by the Polansky Gallery, Prague. the bridge saw him win the prize for Personality and Design in Prague and won www.milenadopitova.cz of the Year 2011. Krištof Kintera is represented by the Jindřich Chalupecký Award Ján Mančuška the Jiri Svestka Gallery, Prague and Berlin and the in 2007. She participated at the (*1972, Bratislava, +2011, Prague) Lukáš Jasanský Schleicher Lange Gallery, Berlín. 6th Liverpool Biennial, 11th Biennale de Lyon and Mančuška graduated from (*1965, Prague) www.kristofkintera.com the 18th Sydney Biennale. She examines the rela- the Academy of Fine Arts in and tionship of the individual to the structured system Prague. He was a member of Martin Polák Barbora Klímová (*1977, Brno) and their physical presence in patterns of behav- the Bezhlavý jezdec / Headless (*1966, Prague) Klímová is a graduate of the iour. She reveals archetypal and learned relation- Horseman group and won the Jasanský and Polák studied Faculty of Fine Arts, Brno, ships within the framework of the community and Jindřich Chalupecký Award in 2004. He exhibited at the Academy of Perform- where she is a lecturer at in the direction of society as a whole (the com- at the 51st Berlin Biennale, Berlin Biennial 4, etc. ing Arts in Prague and since present. She won the Jindřich munity of the family, school, old people, children, The beginnings of his work introduced conceptual 1986 have worked as a artistic Chalupecký Award in 2006 mentally ill people). She does not use individual procedures into art at the end of the 90s, fi rstly duo. They were prize-winners for her project Replaced, in strategies of research (reconstruction, archaeolo- within the framework of painting, which was in The Artist Has Got the Prize which she repeated certain well gy, archive, direction and script) and media (draw- soon torn from the canvas and inserted into the competition in 2009. The fi rst known performances from the 70s and 80s within ing, collage, object, video, installation, event) in an space itself. His installations and objects advocate neo-Dadaist series from the 80s the context of the new millennium. She works abstract way, but makes them contingent upon the non-spectacular opposition to the previous post- alternated with their own vari- with archives, time shifts, remakes and reinter- topic. She monitors intensively problems of social revolutionary wave and are accompanied by a shift ant of topographic photography and large aggre- pretation, and is involved in other projects, e.g. isolation. She is concerned with the formation of toward a DIY aesthetic. Mančuška believed that gates that brought post-conceptual considerations Personal Events (2008), in which she had persons the human personality through education and common-or-garden items and fragments could say into Czech photography and incidentally became repeat the activities they were carrying out in old external infl uences and the functioning of memory, more about reality in the era of post-revolutionary an important commentary on the times. Jasanský photographs. She also makes small interventions which is selective and subjective. Using traumatic disillusionment than exclusivity and entireties. and Polák were inspired by the non-aesthetic of in public space with the character of events or manifestations and the voluntary entry of the view Fragmented reality, in which absence has greater scientifi c and police registration photography. installations. into the “game” she attempts to remedy social power than presence, is later composed into They use the documentary genre (as well as other www.barboraklimova.net distortions. Eva Koťátková is represented by hunt rhizomatic installations in which text and dialogue normative methods of depiction) with irony. They kastner artworks, Prague and Meyer Riegger, took centre stage as the basis of his later fi lms photograph (in large, analogue resolution) every Karlsruhe and Berlin. and theatre performances. He was interested in item in absurd quantities. They comment not only the asynchrony of temporal strata, the non-linear on the socio-political reality but the medium of nature of reading and the possibility of adapting photography and art in general, all the way to its 49 PROFILES OF ARTISTS CZECH CONTEMPORARY ART GUIDE 50

Brechtian theatre techniques to modern society. Rafani – a group created at the Academy of Fine Jiří Surůvka (*1961, Ostrava) viewer’s experience. He consciously disrupts a Ján Mančuška is represented by the Andrew Kreps Arts in Prague in 2000. Strictly democratic rules Surůvka is a graduate of the realistic storyline with mystery. His work is charac- Gallery, New York and Meyer Riegger, Karlsruhe reinforce the idea of the collective, which was Department of Czech Language terised by its sensuous interpretation of traumatic and Berlín. undermined in the period after 1989. At a time and Literature at the Philosophy themes and social and historical taboos related to www.janmancuska.com when there was a dearth of exhibition premises Faculty of Ostrava University. sexual deviation, gender and queer issues, and the and information, the group’s members ran the gal- Since 2003 he has been work- Sudetenland identity. His early short videos drew Markéta Othová (*1968, Brno) lery CO 14 and organised lectures by artists at the ing at Ostrava University as on the aesthetic of clips and fl irted ambivalently Othová graduated from the Philosophy Faculty of Charles University in Prague. head of the New Media studio with popular culture and its icons (Madonna, Andy Academy of Arts, Architecture Through their fi rst events and demonstrations they and is a member of the Lozinski František group. Warhol). An important fi gure whose identity he and Design in Prague and won opened up sensitive themes, such as the relation- His work is characterised by his typically ironic borrowed was the popular opera diva Maria Callas. the Jindřich Chalupecký Award ship between Czechs and Germans, rightwing humour. Since the mid-80s he has focussed on in 2002. She works with large- extremism, the current leftwing, immigration, and performances at which he often dresses up in Jiří Thýn (*1977, Prague) format black-and-white photog- the state of democracy. They unsettled the general symbolic costumes. He is especially known for his Thýn graduated from the raphy applied without distance to the wall. This is public with the appearance of the radical right Policeman and Batman. However, there is an intel- Academy of Arts, Architecture already indicative of her ambivalent relationship (uniforms, rules, methods speeches). In 2002 they ligible criticism of society in his paintings, objects, and Design in Prague. He is a to the very basis of photography, which is at once joined the Communist Part for research purposes. photographs, digital pictures and video. photographer who interrogates image, but also a series of enlarged snapshots with At exhibitions they presented a precisely deline- the possibilities of photogra- a nomadic and voyeuristic narrative played out in ated spectrum of opinions, whose margins they Kateřina Šedá (*1979, Brno) phy and tests the boundaries European streets. The method of perceiving and deliberately intensifi ed and the overall impression Šedá graduated from the Acad- between photography and the memorising the world and its civil appearance of which they reinforced through their visual stag- emy of Fine Arts in Prague. In seen. Some of his work is of an abstract character, forms the subject matter of her photographs, as ing. They did not put forward their own opinion, 2005 she won the Jindřich Cha- a quality he achieves through his choice of subject though looking at reality meant understanding it. preferring to place their faith in the strength of the lupecký Award. She alternates matter or the fragmentation thereof. However, in She single-mindedly looks for her own visual lan- contradictions on show. In 2006, dissatisfi ed with between the local surround- his pictures we always encounter a new reality, guage in which the atmosphere of pictures is not the dominance of conceptual presentations they ings of Brno and international even though some photographs might at fi rst sight the result of simply intuition but deliberation too. stopped using text as being too defi ning and ideo- artistic institutions such as Tate seem “ordinary” because of the choice of theme. She revaluates the security of modern language in logical and blacked out all of their texts, including Modern, 10th Lyon Biennale, Manifesta 2008, docu- This would include photos in which he processes a melancholic refl ection, which, however, retains their website. They now concentrate on image- menta 12, the 5th Berlin Biennial, etc. She is part of one of the unconventional motifs that pervades the uniqueness of the image. Markéta Othová is based metaphors and their own introspection. the generation of conceptual artists at the start of his work, namely plants and views of botanical represented by the gallery Nicolas Krupp Contem- In 2011 they made their fi rst fi lm entitled the millennium aff ected by the social turnaround in gardens. Jiří Thýn is represented by hunt kastner porary Art, Basel. 31 konců 31 začátků / 31 Endings 31 Beginnings. art. She systematically works on community-based artworks, Prague. rafani.blogspot.com projects, which are site-specifi c and intended to www.jirithyn.cz Michal Pěchouček make an avant-garde intervention in life. In an ef- (*1973, Duchcov) Pavel Sterec (*1985, Prague) fort to counteract the atomisation of society she Tomáš Vaněk (*1966, Počátky) Pěchouček graduated from the Sterec graduated from the persuades large numbers of people to perform Vaněk graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague Academy of Fine Arts and at collectively their endemic habits, which in her most Academy of Fine Arts in and in 2003 won the Jindřich present is a student on the doc- recent projects she has then transferred to the Prague. In 2001 he won the Chalupecký Award. He is also toral programme at the Acad- context of international artistic projects. Many of Jindřich Chalupecký Award. He a lecturer, curator and fi lm and emy of Arts, Architecture and her events highlight the hermetic character of the is a member of the Headless theatre writer. His work is situated between two Design in Prague. He combines art world and attempt to force it to confront the Horseman group and one of the main interests, i.e. telling a story and analysing performance, object, installation, photography and opinion of people who are not involved with art. founder members of the PAS group. Since 2010 he the media and the story within it. These positions other media in his works. He examines questions of Kateřina Šedá is represented by Franco Soffi antino has been senior lecturer at the Intermedia 3 studio are alternated and sometimes combined. He has science, museums and archives, social structures, Contemporary Art Productions, Torino. at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague. He works always worked with sets, arrangements, sequences and our dependency on tangible and symbolic mainly in public spaces, either as a member of and direction and even, though he painted large capital. His projects also regularly address the Mark Ther (*1977, Praha) the PAS group, with which he was one of the fi rst fi gural canvases from a hospital context, made a question of the artist’s dependence on his or her Ther graduated from the Acad- in the CR to initiate street window exhibitions, or fi lm of them. Later, enchanted by cinematography, own craftsmanship and the issue of cooperation emy of Fine Arts in Prague. In as an artist who uses templates which he sprays he animated photographs into photo-fi lms with and appropriation. An example would be his solo 2011 he won the Jindřich Cha- onto exteriors and interiors. He often takes a every narrative spliced with sophisticated twists exhibition in the Moravian Gallery, Brno, at which lupecký Award for his fi lm Das concrete subject as his theme that could genuinely and codes. He is interested in transitory forms. by using a three-metre stone paddlewheel used as wandernde Sterlein, which com- appear in the location of his exhibition (electrical He interrogates by what means individual media legal tender on the island of Yap he interrogated bines the controversial topic of installations, building facades, nails in a wall, etc.). are able to recount a story, and then combines the signifi cance and meaning of payment systems. paedophilia with the story of the disappearance of Because he is interested in activating the viewer’s their procedures. In his last large exhibition at the He is a member of the federation of artists and children in the last years of the war on the Czech perceptions, at the end of the 90s he began using Prague City Gallery entitled Lessons in Art in 2011 theoreticians P.O.L.E. borderlands. He exhibits within the context of fi lm the designation Particip for events conceived for his textile and embroidered images encountered www.pavelsterec.org festivals, though mainly in galleries and museums. a particular place or situation. His Particips are fi lmograms, i.e. photograms of cinema fi lms. He works exclusively with video and fi lm and numbered in ascending order. Tomáš Vaněk is rep- www.pechoucek.cz cinema presentation. He adheres to the aesthetic resented by hunt kastner artworks, Prague. quality of image and sound, which intensifi es the www.particip.tv 51 THEORETICIANS AND CURATORS CZECH CONTEMPORARY ART GUIDE 52

THEORETICIANS In the Czech Republic as in the rest of the world However, neither large cultural institutions nor Gallery Prague or the National Gallery. It is only the role of curator has developed from the posi- regional galleries underwent a transformation during the Noughties that we see the arrival of tions of art historian, theoretician, gallerist and process. Leaving aside the fact that important curators completely independent of larger institu- AND CURATORS collector looking after the depository of a cultural historians, theoreticians and curators had worked tions. These would include Václav Magid and institution. The emergence of curatorship in this for several years in these institutions, their Pavlína Morganová, even though they work in the country was linked to the modernist programme. structure remained almost unchanged. Instead Academic Research Centre of the Academy of Any mention of this period should not overlook of the formulation of a cultural policy there was Fine Arts in Prague, and Karel Císař, who is essen- Vincenc Kramář, a First Republic theoretician and simply a revival of an exhibition programme and tially a philosopher and whose curatorial activities promoter of Cubism who is responsible for acqui- the slow penetration of contemporary art into the investigating contemporary aesthetic trends has sitions of enormous value. His private collection institutional environment. One of the important a distinctly international fl avour. Jiří Ptáček, Jan of Cubist art that he bequeathed to the National fi gures in curatorship both prior to and after the Zálešák, Edith Jeřábková and Pavel Vančát oper- Gallery forms the basis of the internationally revolution was Karel Srp (1988–2013 at the Prague ate partially within the institutional framework, recognised Modern Art Collection. An important City Gallery). Srp worked in tandem with Olga which is on the one hand marked by the rigidity milestone in the formation of contemporary Malá, with whom he founded and curated the fi rst of the existing pre-revolution structures and on art curator is to be found in the 1960s. General years of the Zvon Biennale of Young Artists in the the other by the need for maximum fl exibility of cultural eff orts were accompanied by signifi cant 1990s. Jana and Jiří Ševčík were the main cura- the workforce, mobility, short-term contracts, changes in the policy of organising exhibitions. A tors and theoreticians of the post-revolutionary etc. The youngest “independent” curator working gallery had an exhibition commission set up that generation of contemporary artists, linking them within the institutional environment is Ondřej was led by a commissioner, i.e. the main curator up with the pre-revolutionary generation, helping Chrobák, at present employed at the Moravian of the exhibition space. A leading role was played create their programme, and defi ning the impor- Gallery in Brno. by the programme of the Václav Špála Gallery, tant themes of the transformation process from put together by Jindřich Chalupecký, an impor- postmodern theory to the political and social A phenomenon on the art scene in the third tant Czech art and literary critic, theoretician concepts of the end of the 90s. millennium involves curators and artists who and historian, author of philosophical essays and founded or head small, non-profi t galleries translator, as well as a post-war advocate of mod- After the revolution in 1989 a new art industry and alternative premises. These too have their ernism. He was the fi rst, for instance, to present had to be established from scratch. An impor- direct predecessors: the artist Jiří David from events and happenings within the Czech gallery tant role was played by newly created galleries the 80s and Milana Saláka from the 90s and environment. However, the driving momentum of featuring various kinds of hybrid programmes. In Noughties, bringing political engagement and this period was brought to a halt by normalisation 1990, as in other countries of the former Eastern themes to curatorship, or the artist Jiří Valoch and Chalupecký banned from public activities. Bloc, the Soros Centre for Contemporary Art from the 70s, the former curator of The Brno Another important fi gure is the theoretician and was established in order to support the devel- House of Arts and the National Gallery, and critic Ludmila Vachtová, who during the 1960s opment of an art infrastructure (since 1999 the Michal Škoda, who heads the House of Art in encouraged a host of kinetic art practitioners. She Foundation and Centre for Contemporary Arts České Budějovice, which off ers a top quality also headed Platýz, a unique type of sales gallery Prague). Ludvík Hlaváček, director of the centre, international programme. A new topic is women’s within the framework of the communist regime. implemented many extensive and demanding art, feminism and gender studies, introduced to international projects on topical themes involving Czech curatorial and critical practice above all by The 1980s saw unoffi cial exhibitions being held new media, political art, and art in public spaces. Martina Pachmanová and Zuzana Štefková. As in apartments as well as what were dubbed Con- An important institution for the presentation of well as independent curatorship Pachmanová and frontations (1984 –1987). These were salon-style internationally renowned fi gures that in the post- Štefková also lecture extensively at universities. exhibitions lasting several days organised by Jiří totalitarian period seemed simply but logically It is from universities that the new generation David and Stanislav Diviš, students at the Acade- a priority, was Prague Castle. The head of the of curators is arriving, which is the fi rst to have my of Fine Arts in Prague, in apartments, studios, programme was Ivona Raimanová, who subse- completed courses geared specifi cally toward homes and exteriors mostly rented by artists. This quently incorporated the local exhibition strategy work as a curator. Over the last few years it has type of “social curatorship”, in which the main into the conception of the Rudolfi num Gallery, been possible to study curatorship at Master’s criterion was direct artistic confrontation and the where it remains to this day. In 1994 Petr Nedoma degree level at the Faculty of Art and Design of social events associated therewith, even left an took over leadership of the Rudolfi num with its the Jan Evangelista Purkyně University in Ústí nad impression on the operations of several offi cial concept of a “kunsthalle”, and he continues in the Labem and at the Academy of Art, Architecture cultural institutions of the normalisation period. post to this day laying an emphasis on classical and Design in Prague as part of a programme In her study of the Grey Zone Jiřina Šiklová noted exhibitions of world art. Nevertheless, in the 90s entitled The History and Theory of Design and that, after the possible overthrow of the regime, several curators were already working indepen- New Media. The Academy also off ers a doctorate the art industry would be transferred into the dently at their base institutions or completely in the sphere of The Curator and Critic of Design hands of representatives of this zone, i.e. for the on their own and conceiving projects in other and Intermedia. This generation has a keen inter- most part employees of art institutions such as galleries and non-gallery premises. Representa- est in critical curatorship and its relationship with the National Gallery and the Prague City Gallery. tives of the new generation of curators arriving institutional criticism. These maintained contact with the development on the scene around the mid-90s, such as Radek . of curatorial practice and the gallery environ- Váňa, Tomaš Pospiszyl and Vít Havránek, have ment, while not being part of the establishment. often acquired many years’ experience at the City 53 PROFILES OF THEORETICIANS AND CURATORS CZECH CONTEMPORARY ART GUIDE 54

PROFILES Vjera Borozan (*1977) Edith Jeřábková (*1970) Chalupecký Award. In his curatorial work and Borozan is an art historian and curator. She studied Jeřábková is a curator and critic who studied art publications he looks for the relationships between art history at the Philosophy Faculty of Charles history at the Philosophy Faculty of Palacký Uni- theory, philosophy and contemporary art, monitors OF THEORETICIANS University in Prague. She has lectured at the Fac- versity in Olomouc. From 2006 to 2009 she was the consequences of conceptualism on contempo- ulty of Fine Arts in Brno and is currently a lecturer curator of the collection and assistant director of rary art, and is interested in activism, avant-garde AND CURATORS at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design the Galerie Klatovy/Klenová, from 2010 to 2012 she forms and social programmes. in Prague. From 2005 to 2011 she collaborated on worked at the Academic Research Centre of the [email protected] the tranzit initiative and since 2012 has been head Academy of Fine Arts in Prague and the Fotograf of the online platform Artyčok.TV. She is interested Gallery in Prague (from 2011 as the main curator), Pavlína Morganová (*1974) in the politics of representation in art and a critical and since 2011 she has been working at the Acad- Morganová is a curator, critic and art historian. She rewriting of modern and contemporary art history. emy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague studied art history at the Philosophical Faculty in Her texts have been published in art magazines as head of the Sculpture Studio (with Dominik Prague. Since 1997 she has been working at the and various publications. Lang). She is concerned with the interpretation Academic Research Centre of the Academy of [email protected] of the themes of contemporary art by means of Fine Arts in Prague. She lectures at the Academy exhibitions and writes criticism on the subject for and at the Anglo-American University in Prague. Vít Havránek (*1971) specialist periodicals, publications, and catalogues. She is interested in Czech action art from the Havránek is a curator, critic and art historian. He She has followed the transformative processes in 1960s to the 1980s and has published a defi nitive studied Art History at the Philosophy Faculty of Czech art over the last thirty years. monograph on the subject. She is also interested in Charles University in Prague. From 1995 to 1998 he [email protected] the period of transformation and has participated was curator of the National Gallery in Prague, from on many anthologies devoted to this. In her cura- 1998 to 2002 curator of the City Gallery Prague, Michal Koleček (*1966) torial work she mainly follows the post-conceptual from 2000 specialist assistant at the Academy of Koleček is a curator and theoretician who studied trends of the generation of the 90s and Noughties. Art, Architecture and Design in Prague, and since at the Faculty of Education of the Jan Evangelista [email protected] 2002 executive director of the Czech section of Purkyně University in Ústí nad Labem and the the Tranzit initiative. He is a member of the PAS as- Faculty of Education of Masaryk University in Brno. Tomáš Pospiszyl (*1967) sociation and co-creator with Zbyněk Baladrán of From 1994 to 2002 he was director of the Emil Pospiszyl is an art historian, curator and critic. He the project Monument to Transformation. In 2010 Filla Gallery in Ústí nad Labem, from 1997 to 1999 studied the Theory of Culture and the History of he was a member of the team of curators at the curator of the Soros Centre for Contemporary Art at the Philosophical Faculty of Art in Prague Manifesta 8 art show. He follows the development Arts Prague, from 2002 to 2003 curator of the and was a postgraduate at the Center for Curato- of the artistic avant-garde of the 20th and 21st Collection of Modern and Contemporary Art of the rial Studies at Bard College. From 1992 to 1993 centuries on the basis of post-colonial theories and National Gallery in Prague, from 1994 to 2007 head he was production manager of the exhibition documentary forms of art of the third millennium. of the Faculty of Art History and Theory, and since programme of Prague Castle Administration, from [email protected] 2007 has been dean of the Faculty of Art and 1997 to 2002 curator of the Collection of Modern Design of the Jan Evangelista Purkyně University and Contemporary Art at the National Gallery in Ondřej Chrobák (*1975) in Ústí nad Labem. In his curatorial and theoretical Prague, and in 2000 a research assistant at the Chrobák is an art historian and curator who activities he follows the social aspects of contem- Museum of Modern Art in New York. Since 2003 studied the art history at the Philosophy Faculty porary fi ne art. His research and teaching activities he has been a lecturer at the Film and TV School of Charles University in Prague. From 2000 to focus on the problematic of the status of art in at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague and 2008 he was curator and director of the Collec- totalitarian regimes during the 1970s and 80s and since 2004 has participated in the organisation tion of Prints and Drawings at the National Gallery the subsequent transformative process. of the Jindřich Chalupecký Award. In his theoreti- in Prague, from 2001 to 2006 co-curator of the [email protected] cal and curatorial work he focuses on the central Display Gallery, from 2009 to 2011 main curator of themes of modern and avant-garde art of the GASK in Kutná Hora, and since 2012 he has been Václav Magid (*1979) 20th and 21st century and on the interpretation of head of the Methodology Centre at the Moravian Magid is an artist, theoretician and critic. He marginal cultural phenomena. He is also intensively Gallery in Brno. He is interested in contemporary studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, involved in journalism. art and the contemporary interpretation of 20th the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design, [email protected] century art, often through work with the collec- did a course in the liberal arts and the humanities tions of Czech art institutions. at the Faculty of Humanities at Charles University Jiří Ptáček (*1975) [email protected] in Prague and studied philosophy at the Philo- Ptáček is a curator and critic. He studied art sophical Faculty of Charles University in Prague. history at the Philosophical Faculty of Palacký Since 2006 he has been working at the Academic University in Olomouc. From 2003 to 2006 he was Research Centre of the Academy of Fine Arts in editor-in-chief of the magazine Umělec / Artist, Prague and since 2012 at the Faculty of Fine Art in from 2007 to 2008 dramaturg of the NoD Gallery Brno. He has been editor-in-chief of the maga- in Prague, from 2009 to 2011 a lecturer at the Vid- zine Notebook for Art, Theory and Related Zones eo Studio at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the Brno since 2007. In 2010 he was a fi nalist in the Jindřich University of Technology, from 2010 dramaturg of 55 PROFILES OF THEORETICIANS AND CURATORS / MUSEUMS OF ART CZECH CONTEMPORARY ART GUIDE 56

the Zutý Mánes Gallery in České Budějovice and rary art and the history of photography. His moni- MUSEUMS set rules but is always subject to individual agree- in 2011 curator of the Gallery of the Young in Brno. toring of the development of the photographic ments reached between the institutions involved. Since 2012 he has been curator of Fotograf Gallery medium since the 1970s has included an attempt There are several travelling exhibitions, though the in Prague. In his curatorial work and publications to incorporate more precisely photography into OF ART route diff ers from project to project he follows current events on the Czech art scene the free sphere of art and visual culture. and comments on social, political and individual [email protected] phenomena. He has long collaborated with artists belonging to the tradition of the art of positive Petr Vaňous (*1975) National Gallery in Prague gestures in public space. Vaňous is a curator, critic and art historian. He [email protected] studied art history at the Philosophy Faculty of This is the largest and oldest museum of art in the Masaryk University in Olomouc. From 2000 to Czech Republic. The roots of the National Gallery Mariana Serranová (*1976) 2001 he was editor of the magazine Atelier and The Czech Republic boasts a relatively dense stretch back to 1796. The gallery has no central Serranová is a curator and critic. She studied art from 2006 to 2009 editor of the cultural weekly network of publicly funded museums of art (the building. Instead its collections are distributed history at the Philosophy Faculty of Charles Uni- A2. He is interested in the relationship between word “gallery” is mostly used in Czech to describe around several historical palaces in the centre of versity in Prague. From 2003 to 2012 she worked traditional creative media (especially painting) and a museum of art). As well as the Big 4 museums, Prague. The collection of modern and contem- as a freelance curator and critic, cooperating with new visual trends and monitors the transformation i.e. the National Gallery in Prague, the Museum of porary art is based in Veletržní Palace, a beautiful the Centre for Contemporary Arts Prague, the Je- of painting under the conditions of an information Decorative Arts in Prague, the Moravian Gallery in example of functionalist architecture from between lení Gallery, the festival 4+4+4 Days in Movement, society. Brno and the Olomouc Museum of Art, the founder the two world wars. Funke Kolín, Futura, the Prague Biennale, Artyčok. [email protected] of which is the state as represented by the Ministry TV, etc. In 2005 she was an external lecturer at of Culture, the backbone of this network comprises Palác Kinských the Faculty of Fine Arts, Brno. She is interested in Jan Zálešák (*1979) twenty regional galleries administered by the (administrative headquarters) the political and social aspects of contemporary Zálešák is a curator and critic. He studied at the regions. Staroměstské nám. 12 art. Her exhibition Indications was devoted to the University of Hradec Králové and Masaryk Univer- 110 15 Prague 1 post-conceptual inconspicuous tendency and sity in Brno. From 2008 to 2010 he was curator Most of the institutions administered by the social conceptions in Czech art at the start of the at the Gallery of the Young Brno and since 2011 regions came into being in the 1950s and 60s as Veletržní Palace 21st century. he has been a lecturer at the Faculty of Fine Arts state museums established by the Communist Par- (collection of modern and contemporary art) [email protected] in Brno. He is interested in collaborative and par- ty. Their distribution around the country is based Dukelských hrdinů 47 ticipatory projects in contemporary art and art at on the old territorial classifi cation of the former 170 00 Prague Zuzana Štefková (*1977) the turn of the millennium, the social and archival Czechoslovakia, and the result is that the Ústí nad www.ngprague.cz Štefková is a curator, critic and art historian. She reversal in Czech art, as well as the romanticising Labem region, which is the centre of the mining studied art history at the Philosophy Faculty of return of subjectivism and emotionalism. and chemical industries, is these days the founder Charles University in Prague. Since 2002 she has [email protected] of four museums of art (in Litoměřice, Louny, Most, Museum of Decorative Arts been lecturing at the Council on International and Roudnice nad Labem). in Prague Educational Exchange in Prague, since 2007 she has been a lecturer at the Academy of Arts, Ar- There are considerable diff erences in the level and The Museum of Decorative Arts is based in a build- chitecture and Design in Prague, and she has also profi le of individual regional galleries. Several fea- ing from the end of the 19th century. As well as given lectures at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Brno ture permanent exhibitions charting art from the its collection of applied arts it houses an impor- and the Anglo-American University in Prague. She Middle Ages to the present day, while others or- tant collection of photography (focusing on the is co-founder of the C2C Circle of Curators and ganise temporary exhibitions. Several are devoted Czech interwar avant-garde) and glassworks. The Critics. Since 2008 she has been curator with the to artists of the region in question, while others of- museum is limited by insuffi cient exhibition space Artwall Gallery and has also worked for the Centre fer a programme covering the entire country. Only caused by the endless delay in the construction of for Contemporary Art Prague. She is interested in some of these galleries focus on contemporary art. a new depository. political, gender and minority questions in art and art in public places. The fact that, with the exception of the municipal Ulice 17. listopadu 2 [email protected] galleries in Prague and Ostrava, these institutions 110 00 Prague 1 are not based in buildings geared specifi cally to- www.upm.cz Pavel Vančát (*1976) ward exhibitions is a drawback. At present several Vančát is a curator and journalist. He studied at ambitious conversions of historical buildings into the Institute of Humanities of Charles University gallery spaces are being planned (in Liberec, Zlín Moravian Gallery in Brno in Prague. From 2000 to 2004 he was an external and Kutná Hora) and new buildings are in the plan- lecturer at the Faculty of Art and Design at the ning stage (in Pilsen, Olomouc and Ostrava). With a population of 380,000 Brno is the second J. E. Purkyně University in Ústí nad Labem, from largest city in the Czech Republic. The Moravian 2008 to 2010 curator of the Klatovy/Klenová Gal- Museums of art are federated in two professional Gallery operates not only as a museum of art but lery, and from 2010 to 2011 curator of the MeetFac- organisations: the Association of Galleries of the also as an important collection of applied arts tory residential programme in Prague. Since 2008 CR (www.radagalerii.cz) and the Association of and design. Its collection of photography, which he has been curator of the project StartPoint prize Museums and Galleries (www.cz-museums.cz). Co- includes more than 25,000 exhibits, is one of the for emerging artists. He is interested in contempo- operation on the organisation of exhibitions has no oldest in Europe. The highlight of its calendar is 57 MUSEUMS OF ARTS CZECH CONTEMPORARY ART GUIDE 58

the Biennale of Graphic Design, which has been Museum Kampa Aleš South Bohemian Gallery exhibitions. The plan is for the gallery to relocate running since 1963. to the building of the former municipal spa, built at The museum came into being thanks to the eff orts With its population of 90,000 České Budějovice is the beginning of the 20th century, which is being Pražákův palác of the art collector Meda Mládková and her hus- the centre of South Bohemia. In the town itself the refurbished at present. Husova 18 band Jan Mládek. It was opened in 2003 in Kampa gallery only has a small exhibition space for a per- 662 26 Brno Park, Prague, in the former Sova’s Mill, which manent exhibition focusing on older art. Premises U Tiskárny 81/1 www.moravska-galerie.cz was completely refurbished and these days is a for larger exhibitions are found in the grounds of 460 01 Liberec V landmark on the embankment of the River Vltava. the chateau in the nearby town of Hluboká nad www.ogl.cz The Jan and Meda Mládek Foundation manages an Vltavou, which is a popular tourist destination. Olomouc Museum of Art extensive collection of two icons of 20th century art, František Kupka and Otto Gutfreund, as well as Wortnerův dům Gallery of Fine Arts in Zlín With a population of 100,000 Olomouc is a univer- the Collection of Central European Modern Art. U Černé věže 22 sity town with a long cultural tradition. At the core 370 01 České Budějovice Zlín has a population of 70,000 and is situated in of the museum is its collection of old European U Sovových mlýnů 2 www.ajg.cz the east of the Czech Republic. It is proud of its painting put together by the Bishops of Olomouc 118 00 Praha 1 – Malá Strana commercial history. In 2013 the gallery is set to from the 18th century onwards. Over the last few www.museumkampa.cz relocate to refurbished premises of the sometime years the museum has been creating an ambitious Gallery of the Central factory of the company Baťa. The gallery organises collection of post-war and contemporary art from Bohemian Region two triennials (the Zlín Salon of the Young and the Central and Eastern Europe known as the Central West Bohemian Gallery in Pilsen New Zlín Salon), which focus on contemporary European Forum Olomouc. A new building to Kutná Hora has a population of 20,000 and is art from the Czech Republic and Slovakia. It also house the museum is being planned. Pilsen has a population of 170,000 and is the on the UNESCO cultural heritage list. The gallery publishes its own art and literary quarterly entitled natural centre of Western Bohemia. In 2015 it will is located in the former Jesuit College, which is Prostor Zlín. Denisova 47 be the European Capital of Culture. The gallery is gradually being refurbished. The town is a frequent 771 11 Olomouc based in two historical buildings in the city centre destination of tourists from Prague. For this reason Dům umění www.olmuart.cz that it uses for temporary exhibitions. It features a the main exhibitions take place in spring and sum- náměstí T. G. M. 2570 strong collection of 19th century art and Czech Cu- mer at the height of the tourism season. 762 27 Zlín bism, though it has no permanent exhibitions. The www.galeriezlin.cz City Gallery Prague project to build a new section has been postponed Barborská 51–53 indefi nitely for fi nancial reasons. 284 01 Kutná Hora The City Gallery Prague manages several exhibition www.gask.cz buildings in the city centre, of which the best con- Pražská 13 ditions are off ered by the galleries on the upper 301 00 Pilsen fl oors of the Municipal Library. The Dům U Zlatého www.zpc-galerie.cz Gallery of Fine Art in Cheb prstenu / House of the Gold Ring houses a per- manent exhibition of post-war and contemporary Cheb has a population of 30,000 and is the west- art. The gallery focuses on Czech and foreign art East Bohemian Gallery ernmost point of the Czech Republic. The gallery from modernism to the present day. It off ers a in Pardubice recently reinstalled its permanent exhibition and systematic overview of the contemporary Czech is attempting to off er a wide range of exhibitions art scene. It is also the organiser (though not at Pardubice has a population of almost 90,000. The from the 19th century to the present day. It is co- completely regular intervals) of the Zvon Biennale. gallery is based in two historical buildings in the organiser of the European prize Start Point, the city centre. It off ers a wide range of exhibitions, brainchild of Marcel Fišer, gallery director. Revoluční 1006/5 ranging from book illustrations to large exhibitions 110 00 Prague 1 of contemporary artists. náměstí Krále Jiřího z Poděbrad 16 www.ghmp.cz 350 46 Cheb Dům U Jonáše www.gavu.cz Pernštýnské nám. 50 Gallery of Fine Art Ostrava 530 02 Pardubice www.vcg.cz Liberec Regional Gallery Ostrava has a population of 300,000 and is a city with a long industrial tradition. The gallery Liberec has a population of 100,000 and is situ- is housed in the House of Art built in the 1920s. ated in Northern Bohemia. It was home to the Ger- It hosts a good collection of modern Czech art, man-speaking minority until the end of the Second though it does not have the space for a permanent World War. The gallery attempts to respect this exhibition. There are plans for a new wing that tradition and renew links with the German cultural would expand the exhibition space considerably. environment. It is housed in a luxury villa dating from the end of the 19th century in which there is Poděbradova 1291/12 space for a permanent exhibition and temporary 702 00 Ostrava www.gvuo.cz 59 EXHIBITIONS HALLS AND NON-COMMERCIAL GALLERIES CZECH CONTEMPORARY ART GUIDE 60

EXHIBITION HALLS Exhibition halls have a long history in the Czech After 2000 many organisations were created, Rudolfi num Gallery lands. At the start of the last century there were largely civic associations, with the aim of expand- already several good quality exhibition halls in ing and promoting activities in the sphere of The current form of the Rudolfi num Gallery is very AND Prague, which acted as arbiters of the art of the contemporary art and encouraging international much the work of its director and curator Petr time. One of the main centres of cultural events was linkups. These institutions concentrate on an inter- Nedoma. The gallery focuses on contemporary art NON-COMMERCIAL the building housing the Mánes Union of Fine Arts, disciplinary programme and often take the form and could be characterised as a Kunsthalle. It does built in 1930 as the union’s headquarters on the of cultural centres that organise concerts, theatre not have its own collection and focuses on exhibi- GALLERIES embankment of the River Vltava. After the com- performances, etc. alongside exhibitions. They also tions and cooperation on an international level. It munist putsch the union’s activities were closed run residential programmes and rent studios to also publishes catalogues and brochures, as well as down. They briefl y started up again in the second artists. The most important of these are MeetFac- organising lectures, seminars, and many accompa- half of the 1960s, before again stagnating during tory, Futura and Karlin Studios. An interesting nying events. the period of normalisation. It was only in the 1990s feature peculiar to the Czech Republic is the large that monographic exhibitions of representatives of number of small, non-commercial galleries or non- Alšovo nábřeží 12 the pre-revolutionary unoffi cial scene appear on its profi t spaces off ering an excellent programme. 110 01 Prague 1 programme, along with more broadly conceived These were created in response to the needs of www.galerierudolfinum.cz curatorial projects. However, the union was again to the art scene and the inability of large institutions lose its position, and at present the famous Mánes to off er space for the most up-to-date art projects. building is being refurbished. Nová síň / New Hall These galleries now enjoy the same respect as tra- Brno House of Arts was built by the Union of Creative Artists in the ditional institutions. Their exhibition programmes 1930s. It became the focus of more attention in the feature almost exclusively young artists and this in For more than one hundred years the House of second half of the 90s, when it curated a series turn off ers young curators an opportunity to make Arts has long been one of the most important of quality exhibitions featuring both Czech and a name for themselves. drivers of Brno-based culture. It is an open-plan, foreign names. The now legendary Václav Špála modern institution that mediates and encourages Gallery was very important during the late 60s, contact between artists and the general public. with a clear concept of an exhibition programme. Its ambition is to become a dynamic space linked At that time the respected art theoretician Jindřich into a network of prestigious European galleries. It Chalupecký was responsible for the programme. oversees the activities of two other galleries, the During the period of normalisation exhibitions of House of the Lords of Kunštát in Dominikánská mainly offi cial art acceptable to the political regime Street, and Gallery 99 in the basement of that were held in the gallery. After 1989 the gallery again building. focused on contemporary Czech art. The very fi rst Jindřich Chalupecký Prize was awarded here and Malinovského náměstí 2 the gallery still plays host to an annual exhibition of 602 00 Brno the competition laureates. All three of these galler- www.dum-umeni.cz ies are still in operation today, though they do not play such an important role as in the past. House of Art České Budějovice These days important exhibition halls in the Czech Republic represent good quality institu- Since 1998, under the leadership of its curator tions fi nanced from state and municipal subsidies, Michal Škoda, this gallery has focused on contem- grants, and their own fundraising activities. Their porary art and architecture. It mounts exhibitions programmes concentrate on contemporary art of a range of Czech and foreign artists. The latter with an overlap into other spheres of culture very often receive their fi rst exposure not only in and art. Larger institutions with a relatively long the Czech Republic but in the whole of Eastern tradition include the Rudolfi num Gallery and the Europe. Over the last few years there has been a Brno House of Arts, which given their quality and gradual movement in the direction of minimalism exhibition profi le are the equivalent of muse- and geometric or conceptual art and its off shoots. ums. Their programme is basically more fl exible and more able to refl ect the situation on the art Náměstí Přemysla Otakara II. 38 scene. A courageous initiative of the last few 370 01 České Budějovice years was the Centre for Contemporary Art DOX, www.mucb.cz the brainchild of a group of private investors that saw a large, multifunctional complex created in a newly refurbished industrial building. However, its programme is fragmentary and despite a series of successful exhibitions it still lacks a clear overarch- ing structure. 61 EXHIBITIONS HALLS AND NON-COMMERCIAL GALLERIES CZECH CONTEMPORARY ART GUIDE 62

Tranzitdisplay Futura Školská 28 Wannieck Gallery

Tranzit.org is an independent initiative that sup- The Futura Centre for Contemporary Art is a Školská 28 Communication Space is an exhibition Its main focus is on exhibiting contemporary ports and organises contemporary art projects in non-profi t organisation. It presents the work of and education centre. Since 1999 it has focused on Czech and world painting and object art. The Central Europe (as well as in the CR it operates in internationally renowned artists, both from the Czech and foreign fi ne art, contemporary music, gallery is also engaged in building a collection Austria, Hungary and Slovakia and is supported by Czech Republic and abroad. It has also launched a the work of fi lmmakers, and new media. An impor- of works of the 1980’s and 1990’s generation of the Erste Foundation). Tranzit creates a dynamic programme of residential courses and cooperates tant part of its activities are evening programmes Czech painters and of those representing the interdisciplinary platform that allows for dialogue with foreign institutions. Foreign artists are able to in the form of lectures, topical broadcasts, and latest trends in painting. The gallery concentrates between artists, curators, critics and other interest implement their projects in Prague and Czech art- creative workshops. its eff orts on collecting works of top representa- groups on the one hand, and the general public on ists have the opportunity to travel abroad. tives of the young generation of Central European the other. Tranzit aims to provide direct support Školská 28 artists. Wannieck Gallery is based in a factory hall to artists and to create the conditions for the un- Holečkova 49 110 00 Prague 1 from the 19th century. derstanding and communication of contemporary 150 00 Prague 5 www.skolska28.cz art within a broader social framework. Display is a www.futuraproject.cz Ve Vaňkovce 2 non-profi t organisation that exhibits contemporary 602 00 Brno visual art. Fotograf Gallery www.wannieckgallery.cz Karlin Studios Dittrichova 9 The Fotograf Gallery is a multifunctional centre 120 00 Prague 2 This is a large complex housing almost twenty stu- that brings together several activities intended www.tranzitdisplay.cz dios that are rented to selected artists. Along with for the cultural public in the sphere of creative the Entrance Gallery, the Karlin Studios Gallery ex- photography. Amongst its important activities is hibits the work of young Czech and foreign artists. the publication of the magazine Fotograf, which Jelení Gallery The founder and initiator of this non-profi t project was launched in 2002. The gallery also exhibits is Futura. One of the studios is used by foreign the photographic projects of artists published in This gallery was opened in 1999 as part of the artists invited to Prague as part of the residential the latest edition of the magazine and organises Centre for Contemporary Arts Prague. It focuses programme organised by Futura. thematic lectures. on exhibiting contemporary artists who are some- times still at art school. The gallery also organises Křižíkova 34 Školská 28 workshops by established artists. 186 00 Prague 8 110 00 Prague 1 www.karlinstudios.cz www.fotografgallery.cz Drtinova 15 150 00 Prague 5 www.galeriejeleni.cz MeetFactory Galerie mladých/ Young Artists’ Gallery MeetFactory was established in 2001 by the artist DOX Centre for Contemporary Art, David Černý and since 2007 has been based in This space for the presentation of work by young Architecture and Design an industrial building in Prague. This is an all- artists was opened in 1967. It exhibits the work of encompassing project, the aim of which is to run students and recent graduates of Czech and Slo- DOX was founded in 2008 as a private initiative of an art and cultural centre bringing together genres vak art schools. Exhibitors must be aged up to 35. several investors. It profi les itself as a dynamic cul- and creative minds. MeetFactory is the venue for As well as solo and group exhibitions, it attempts tural platform encouraging confrontation between encounters between fi ne art, theatre, fi lm music to promote thematically linked curated shows. The diff erent approaches and tendencies on the Czech and educational programmes. It also organises gallery is overseen by the Tourist Information Cen- and international art scene. It aims to promote an international residential programme and rents tre, which also runs the Gallery U Dobrého pastýře dialogue between various artistic disciplines, from studios to local artists. and Gallery Kabinet in the same premises. painting and sculpture, to photography, design, architecture, fi lm, video and new media. Ke Sklárně 3213/15 Galerie TIC 150 00 Prague 5 Brno Tourist Information Centre Poupětova 1 www.meetfactory.cz Radnická 4, 658 78 Brno 170 00 Prague 7 www.galerie-tic.cz www.dox.cz 63 PRIVATE COMMERCIAL GALLERIES CZECH CONTEMPORARY ART GUIDE 64

PRIVATE The situation on the contemporary art market, i.e. Jiří Švestka Gallery Štefánikova 43a – 2nd floor the activities of private galleries that operate as 150 00 Prague 5 an artist’s exclusive representative, cooperate with The gallery was founded in 1995 by the art histori- www.svitpraha.org COMMERCIAL them over the long term and try to promote them an Jiří Švestka. In 2009 it opened a branch in Ber- on an international level, has moved on signifi - lin. The gallery holds a wide portfolio of the young GALLERIES cantly only during the last few years. The process and middle generations of both Czech and foreign Drdova Gallery began in the nineties, and although commercial artists. It also manages part of the collection of galleries were created, it would be diffi cult to refer Vicenc Kramář. The gallery regularly participates at The gallery was opened in 2012 by the art historian to them as the traditional type of representative important art fairs in Europe and the USA. Lucie Drdová. It represents contemporary Czech institution, but more as parties selling various and Slovak artists such as Václav Kopecký, Pavla types of art. This dilettantism, caused mainly by Biskupský dvůr 6 Sceranková, Jan Pfeiff er, and the duo Aleksandra lack of experience, continues to have an infl uence. 110 00 Prague 1 Vajd and Hynek Alt. It has participated at It created an atmosphere of distrust between art- www.jirisvestka.com ViennaFair, The New Contemporary (2012) ists and art dealers, with many artists still prefer- ring to sell their work directly from their studio. Křížkovského 10 Zdeněk Sklenář Gallery 130 00 Prague 3 Nevertheless, during the 1990s three Prague galler- www.drdovagallery.com ies were opened that represent the fi rst profes- Zdeněk Sklenář began working as a gallerist dur- sional commercial galleries in the true sense of the ing the 1990s in Litomyšl and was one of those word. The fi rst of these was the MXM Gallery. This responsible for creating an art market in the Czech Dvorak Sec Contemporary was opened in 1991 and cooperated mostly with Republic. These days he heads two galleries in artists from the Tvrdohlaví and Pondělí groups Prague. He represents post-war Czech artists such This gallery was opened in 2008 by the gallerist as well as with individuals (e.g. Jiří Kovanda, Jan as Zdeněk Sýkora, Milan Grygar and Karel Malich, Olga Dvořáková and the businessman Petr Šec. Merta and Vladimír Skrepl). It also concentrated and younger artists such as Federico Díaz. He is It manages a portfolio of both middle-generation on selected artists from the older (Karel Malich) also involved in publishing. Czech artists such as Jiří David and Jiří Černický, and younger generation (Ján Mančuška, Kamera and young talents such as Jakub Matuška aka skura). It was regularly represented at foreign art Smetanovo nábřeží 4 Masker and Ondřej Brody, as well as several foreign fairs and played an important role in the promo- 110 00 Prague 1 artists. It participated at ViennaFair, The New Con- tion of Czech art of the 1990s abroad. MXM was www.zdeneksklenar.cz temporary (2012), and Scope Basel (2010). closed down after the fl ooding which affl icted a large part of Prague in 2002. In the mid-90s the Dlouhá 5 Jiří Švestka Gallery and the Zdeněk Sklenář Gallery Hunt Kastner Artworks 110 00 Prague 1 (see below) opened their doors. For a long time www.dvoraksec.com these eponymous founders were the only curators, This gallery was opened in 2005 by Katharine and it was only after 2000 and 2005 respectively Kastner, an American, and Camille Hunt, a Canadi- that others began to appear. The currently most an. It represents contemporary Czech artists such Vernon Gallery successful gallery, Hunt Kastner Artworks, which as Zbyněk Baladrán, Josef Bolf, Eva Koťátková, concentrates exclusively on contemporary art and Dominik Lang and Jiří Thýn. The gallery has par- Monika Burian opened this gallery in 2001. It fea- represents more than ten artists, was opened in ticipated at international fairs such as Frieze Frame tures a heterogeneous programme and represents 2005. Since then other galleries have been estab- (2009, 2011), Art Statement Basel (2010, 2012), Czech and foreign artists of all generations. It lished, such as Svit, Dvorak Sec Contemporary, and Paris Photo (2010), and Liste Basel (2007, 2008, participated at Volta Basel, ViennaFair, The New the Drdova Gallery. Recently several galleries have 2009). Contemporary (2012), and Scope Basel (2010). been opened that operate only on the Czech mar- ket. Only time will tell how successful they will be. Kamenická 22 U Průhonu 22 They include Prinz Prager, the Chemistry Gallery, 170 00 Prague 7 170 00 Prague 7 Laboratorio, and the Polansky Gallery. www.huntkastner.com www.galerievernon.com

SVIT

Since 2010 the Svit Gallery has been run by the gallerist Michal Mánek and curator Zuzana Blochová. It represents both Czech (Artamonov/ Klyuykov, Jasanský/ Polák, Marek Meduna) and foreign artists (Andrew Gilbert, Markus Selg). The gallery has participated at fairs such as Frieze London (2012), abc art berlin contemporary (2012), and NADA Cologne (2012). 65 ART SCHOOLS CZECH CONTEMPORARY ART GUIDE 66

ART SCHOOLS The oldest art school in the Czech Republic is Subsequently, an Institute of Creative Culture was Faculty of Art and Design of the the Academy of Fine Arts (AVU) in Prague. Its established, further studios added, and in 1994 the Jan Evangelist Purkyně University traditional “competitor” and the second oldest art idea was mooted of expanding the institute into an school is the Academy of Arts, Architecture and independent Faculty of Art and Design. This idea in Ústí nad Labem Design in Prague (VŠUP). It was only after the fall fi nally bore fruit in 2000. The youngest such art of the Iron Curtain that other university faculties school is the Faculty of Art of Ostrava University, The faculty aims to provide an applied-arts educa- devoted to fi ne art were established in other cities: opened in 2007. Art is also taught as a separate tion through its Master’s degree and doctoral pro- Brno was followed by Ústí nad Labem and Ostrava. discipline in Pilsen, Liberec, Zlín and Opava. grammes. It has seven departments: photography, electronic image, visual communication, applied AVU was established in 1799 originally as a arts, design, general training, and art theory. painting academy, and offi cially commenced its activities a year later. Though VŠUP is the second Academy of Fine Arts in Prague Pasteurova 9 oldest art school in the country it is the fi rst state 400 96 Ústí nad Labem art school. It was founded as the School of Applied AVU off ers Master’s degrees and doctoral pro- www.fud.ujep.cz Arts in Prague in 1885. However, when AVU was grammes in the sphere of fi ne art, new media, the nationalised in 1896, the School of Applied Arts restoration of art and architecture, and related re- lost the prestigious status of the only Czech state search and creative activities. At present it is home Faculty of Art of Ostrava art school, a number of its staff resigned, and to 18 studios. The Academic Research Centre (VVP University the school devoted itself mainly to applied skills. AVU) operates under the auspices of the Academy. The Academy’s status was given a further boost The faculty off ers two Bachelor’s and two Master’s in 1926, when it was the fi rst in what was at that U Akademie 4 degree programmes and comprises nine depart- time Czechoslovakia to be awarded the status of 170 22 Prague 7 ments: intermedia, graphic design and drawing, tertiary-level art school. www.avu.cz painting, sculpture, and art theory and history. The remaining departments off er music and singing. Like other universities, during the Second World War AVU was closed and its role taken over to a Academy of Arts, Dvořákova 7 certain extent by the Secondary School of Applied Architecture and Design 701 03 Ostrava 1 Arts. In 1946, the School of Applied Arts was made fakultaumeni.osu.cz an institution of tertiary education and renamed VŠUP off ers Master’s degrees and doctoral pro- Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design. How- grammes. At present it comprises fi ve depart- ever, when the communists took power in 1948 ments covering 23 studios in the spheres of archi- both institutions were taken under the control of tecture, design, free art, applied art and graphic the state, which decided who would teach and design. The sixth department teaches art history study at them. Opponents of the regime and art- and aesthetics. ists from families known to be against the system were basically banned from studying. náměstí Jana Palacha 80 In 1968, when the principles of the communist re- 116 93 Prague 1 gime were liberalised in Czechoslovakia, it seemed www.vsup.cz that AVU too could expect the necessary reforms. However, the invasion by Warsaw Pact forces and the period of normalisation meant these changes Faculty of Fine Art of the Brno were only made after 1989. The structure, concept Technical University and staff of the institution were changed, and VŠUP underwent similar changes. FaVU off ers Master’s degrees and doctoral programmes. At present two studios off er seven After the revolution new art schools and faculties diff erent accredited disciplines: sculpture, graph- were established. The fi rst of these was the Faculty ics, graphic design, industrial design, conceptual of Fine Art (FaVU), part of the Brno University of tendencies and video-multimedia-performance. Technology. In 1992 a Department of Drawing and Painting is an exception, which is taught in three Modelling was opened at the Architecture Faculty studios. of the Brno University of Technology, which provided the embryo for FaVU, which opened Rybářská 125/13/15 its doors on 1 January 1993. The second such art 603 00 Brno school is the Faculty of Art and Design of the Jan www.ffa.vutbr.cz Evangelist Purkyně University in Ústí nad Labem. In 1992 a Glass Studio was opened as part of the Department of Art of the Faculty of Education. 67 ART EDUCATION AND RESEARCH CZECH CONTEMPORARY ART GUIDE 68

ART EDUCATION The history of art at the level of Master’s degree SPECIALIST INSTITUTIONS Centre for Contemporary Art is taught at six places of higher education in Prague, Brno, Olomouc and Ostrava. However, The centre was opened at the start of the 1990s AND RESEARCH most art departments are fairly conservative, with Department of Art History and with support from the American philanthropist some avoiding contemporary art altogether. For Aesthetics of the Academy of Arts, George Soros. These days it is fi nanced mainly by the moment the most progressive department grants from the Ministry of Culture. It is led by Lud- in terms of its approach to contemporary art is Architecture and Design in Prague vík Hlaváček and runs the Jelení Gallery and the the Department Art History and Aesthetics of internet database artlist.cz, which off ers a portfolio the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design Karel Císař and Martina Pachmanová, both active and short profi les of contemporary Czech artists in in Prague. The most specialist approach to curators, are members of the department. The both Czech and English. contemporary art is taken by a quartet of research academy places great emphasis on the active and documentation centres, namely the Academic involvement of students in the creative process Jelení 9 Research Centre of the Academy of Fine Arts, by organising exhibitions or publishing specialist 118 00 Prague 1 the independent initiative Tranzit, the Centre for anthologies. cca.fcca.cz Contemporary Art, and the Archive of the Fine Arts. náměstí Jana Palacha 80 116 93 Prague 1 Archive of the Fine Arts There is a fairly wide range of specialist periodi- www.vsup.cz cals available, though it is impossible to speak This is an archive of printed material relating to the of a clear editorial line being taken in the case of fi ne arts that was set up in the mid-80s. Originally most of them. Editorial boards are understaff ed Academic Research Centre the private initiative of Jiří Hůla, the archive has and the circles of external collaborators somewhat of the Academy of Fine Arts gradually taken on an institutional character. Its hazy in outline. Individual writers often take it in materials are processed into the abART database turns to write for all the magazines. Print runs are (abart-full.artarchiv.cz). The archive’s library is in the order of a few thousand at most. None of A specialist institution focusing on the history of based at the DOX Centre for Contemporary Art. the magazines is fi nancially self-supporting and all post-war and contemporary art. It is headed by are jostling for grants from the Ministry of Culture. the curator Jiří Ševčík, and other members of the Poupětova 1 During the last few years several specialist art centre are also active curators. Amongst the cen- 170 00 Prague 7 websites have been created. tre’s outputs are editions of primary documents www.artarchiv.cz pertaining to 20th Czech art. The daily newspapers devote almost no space whatsoever to art, and instead of meaty reviews U Akademie 4 MAGAZINES tend to print texts of an informational character. 170 22 Prague 7 Only two of the fi ve national dailies employ their vvp.avu.cz own journalists to write about fi ne art. Most at- Notebook for Art, Theory tention is paid to stories involving record levels and Related Zones of auction sales, museum thefts, or sensational tranzit.cz revelations regarding hitherto unknown works of This periodical focuses on contemporary visual art celebrated artists. A branch of the Central European initiative tranzit. within a broader cultural and theoretical context. org, fi nanced by the Erste banking group. Tranzit It is published twice a year by the Academic Re- charts conceptual tendencies in art from the 1970s search Centre of the Academy of Fine Arts. to the present day. The director of the Czech offi ce The texts published are peer reviewed. is Vít Havránek. In 2010 Tranzit was one of the col- lective of curators of Manifesta in Spain. It runs the U Akademie 4 Tranzitdisplay Gallery in Prague in collaboration 170 22 Prague 7 with the association Display. vvp.avu.cz

Dittrichova 9/337 120 00 Prague 2 Ateliér www.tranzit.org A fortnightly journal of reviews and curatorial texts about exhibitions in smaller galleries and outside Prague, which otherwise tends to remain beneath the radar of other media.

Londýnská 81 120 00 Prague 2 www.atelier-journal.cz 69 ART EDUCATION AND RESEARCH / ART PRIZES CZECH CONTEMPORARY ART GUIDE 70

Flash Art INTERNET ART PRIZES In the years prior to the Velvet Revolution (1989) there was no special prize for artists in what was The Czech-Slovak version of the well known then Czechoslovakia. Nevertheless, fi ne artists, international magazine of the same name. Flash artalk.cz like other artists, could be awarded the honorary Art off ers original texts refl ecting events on the art title of Meritorious Artist by the state. The highest scene in both countries and abroad. It is published A website charting current events on the Czech art award was the title of People’s Artist. Examples two or three times a year. scene that places an emphasis on contemporary of the holders of such titles would include the art and the institutional operations of museums sculptor, Communist Party politician and sometime Prague Biennale Foundation and galleries. Over the last few years this has rector of the Academy of Fine Arts loyal to the Budečská 3 become an important source of information in this regime, Miloš Axman, or the artist Jiří Trnka, who 120 00 Prague 2 sector. was internationally renowned as an illustrator of www.praguebiennale.org children’s books and animated fi lm director.

artyčok.tv At the beginning of the nineties, thanks to the Umění/Art eff orts of the fi rst Czechoslovak president Václav An internet video gallery and TV news channel Havel, the artist Jiří Kolář and the scenographer A bimonthly periodical published by the Institute charting events on the contemporary art scene in Theodor Pištěk, the Jindřich Chalupecký Award of Art History of the Czech Academy of Sciences the form of short video clips (reports are accom- was created. This is now the most important and (ÚDU AV ČR). The magazine off ers peer-reviewed panied by English subtitles). The Academy of Fine prestigious art prize in the CR. It has been awarded texts focusing mainly on older art and often writ- Arts in Prague is a project partner. every year since 1990 and is intended for young ten in English or German. It has given up review- artists aged up to 35. Up until 2000 its organisers ing exhibitions and at most examines exhibition cooperated with the National Gallery in Prague on catalogues. jlbjlt.net awarding the prize. Subsequently the exhibition Husova 4 of fi nalists travelled between Prague and Brno. In 110 00 Prague 1 An independent information portal focusing on Brno it was taken under the patronage of The Brno www.umeni-art.cz events in smaller galleries. The website calls itself House of Arts and in Prague it was once held in an “elite cultural listings magazine”. the Prague City Gallery but otherwise in various independent galleries. For three years (2009–2011) Umělec/Artist the exhibition of fi nalists was held in the Centre artmap.cz for Contemporary Art DOX, and in 2013 it is set An international magazine published in several to return to the National Gallery, where there has languages twice a year. The Czech-based publisher A guide to exhibitions and associated events both since been a change of management. Divus now has branches in London and Berlin. The in and outside Prague (also in English). magazine deliberately ignores current events and There exist another two prizes that were set up discourses in the art world in favour of establishing partly to answer criticism of the Jindřich Cha- its own topics. lupecký Award. The fi rst of these is the Critics’ Award for Young Painting (awarded since 2008), Divus whose organisers were reacting to the fact that Bubenská 1 very few artists who were involved exclusively 170 00 Prague 7 with the medium of painting appeared amongst www.divus.cc the fi nalists of the Jindřich Chalupecký Award. The other prize for young artists is (or rather was) the Prize NG 333 (in 2011 renamed the Prize 333 Art+Antiques National Gallery and ČEZ Group), which from 2007 to 2011 was awarded by the National Gallery A conservatively inclined monthly journal focusing in Prague. The application requirements for both on current events on the Czech art scene. As well prizes were almost identical, the only diff erence as exhibitions (from Old Masters to contemporary being the age limit (artists had to be aged up to 33 art), it deals with architecture and the art market. to compete for the Prize NG 333). The question of whether two such prizes should exist side-by-side Ambit Media in the CR was resolved with the disbandment of Klicperova 8 the Prize NG 333 in 2012 and the planned reloca- 150 00 Prague 5 tion of the exhibition of fi nalists of the Jindřich www.artcasopis.cz Chalupecký Award to Veletržní Palace of the National Gallery. 71 ART PRIZES CZECH CONTEMPORARY ART GUIDE 72

The Artist has a Prize competition was estab- 2005 Kateřina Šedá Personality of the Year EXIT Prize lished as the antithesis to the Jindřich Chalupecký 2006 Barbora Klímová Award. The competition awards a prize from ... 2007 Eva Koťátková The prize for Personality of the Year has been This nationwide competition for art school stu- (the name changes according to the name of the 2008 Radim Labuda awarded since 2002 for important work on the dents in the Czech Republic is organised by the previous winner). The prize is awarded by artists 2009 Jiří Skála Czech art scene over the previous year. This work Faculty of Art and Design of the J. E. Purkyně and theoreticians younger than 35 to an artist who 2010 Vasil Artamonov and Alexey Klyuykov may be a solo exhibition, a publication, participa- University in Ústí nad Labem. It takes the form of a has already passed this age limit. The Michal Ranný 2011 Mark Ther tion at an important foreign show or a specifi c biennale and was fi rst held in 2003. An exhibition prize for merit is organised by the Moravian Gallery artwork. Originally a wide range of critics and of the fi nalists is organised by the Emil Filla Gallery, in Brno. art historians were asked to vote for the winner. and the jury comprises Czech and foreign curators, The Artist has a Prize However, since 2010 a decision has been reached critics and artists. Shortly after the turn of the millennium several (Prize from...) by ten specialists representing various generations, fud.ujep.cz/ex awards organised with the patronage of mainly regions and spheres of fi ne art. regional galleries appeared on the Czech art scene. An event initiated by a group of young theoreti- osobnostroku.triodon.com Like the competitions already referred to, most cians and artists. The prize, the title of which Awards of the Ministry of Culture of these concentrate on young artists and diff er changes every year depending on the name of the Winners: only in respect of the entry qualifi cations which last winner, is awarded as a gesture by the younger 2002 Jiří Sopko Every year since 2002, on the occasion of the a candidate must fulfi l. These include the Václav generation of artists and theoreticians to the older 2003 Kamera Skura national holiday of October 28th, the Ministry of Chad Award (Gallery of Fine Arts, Zlín), EXIT (Emil generation (aged 35 and older). A survey of artists 2004 František Skála Culture has been presenting The Awards of the Filla Gallery, Ústí nad Labem) and the project and theoreticians younger than 35 nominates the 2005 Jan Merta Ministry of Culture for contributions to the fields Start Point, which is an international award for the fi nalists and selects the best solo exhibition, group 2006 Pavel Brázda of theatre, music, the visual arts, and architecture; best art school undergraduate. Students at Czech exhibition and artwork organised or created in the 2007 Jiří Kovanda nominations in dance are included within the field art schools and from other European countries previous year. 2008 Rafani of theatre. The award can be given either for out- participate in the project. The prize is a month’s www.laureat.cz 2009 Jan Merta standing artistic creation or interpretation or for residence in Prague the following year and a solo 2010 Josef Bolf lifetime artistic achievement. exhibition in the Gallery of Fine Art in Cheb. The Winners: 2011 Krištof Kintera www.mkcr.cz same gallery is co-organiser with the magazine 2006 Jiří Kovanda Art+Antiques and the internet portal artalk.cz of 2007 Vladimír Skrepl the award for Personality of the Year for the best 2008 Adriena Šimotová Michal Ranný Prize artwork of the season. 2009 Lukáš Jasanský and Martin Polák 2010 Václav Stratil The Moravian Gallery in Brno awards this prize, 2011 Dalibor Chatrný named after the prematurely deceased painter 2012 Vladimír Kokolia Michal Ranný (1946–1981). It is intended for Jindřich Chalupecký Award Czech fi ne artists and there is no age limit. Each two years someone receives the award who has This has been awarded every year since 1990 to Critics’ Award for Young Painting enriched Czech visual culture both in form and young Czech fi ne artists aged up to 35. It is named content and for whom the Moravian Gallery in after the renowned art critic and philosopher This is a prize awarded by the Society of Art Crit- Brno organises an extensive solo exhibition. Jindřich Chalupecký. It is administered and organ- ics and Theoreticians, the Czech section of the www.moravska-galerie.cz ised by the Jindřich Chalupecký Society. The prize AICA and the Critics’ Award Fund. The exhibition is awarded by a jury comprising Czech and foreign of the fi nalists is organised by the Critics’ Gal- Winners: theoreticians, curators and artists. lery. Applicants must be involved in painting and 2001 Dalibor Chatrný www.cjch.cz related activities and be aged up to 30. The jury 2003 Miroslav Šnajdr Sr. comprises Czech artists and critics. 2005 Stanislav Kolíbal Winners: www.galeriekritiků.cz 2007 Jiří Kovanda 1990 Vladimír Kokolia 2009 Vladimír Skrepl 1991 František Skála Winners: 2011 Milena Dopitová 1992 Michal Nesázal 2008 Ladislava Gadžiová 1993 Martin Mainer 2009 Evžen Šimera 1994 Michal Gabriel 2010 Vladimír Houdek Václav Chad Award 1995 Petr Nikl 2011 Adam Štech 1996 Kateřina Vincourová 2012 Josef Achrer Every three years the Regional Art Gallery in Zlín 1997 Jiří Příhoda organises the Zlín Salon of the Young, an exhibi- 1998 Jiří Černický tion of the work of artists aged up to 30. The 1999 Lukáš Rittstein Václav Chad Award is given to the best work in 2000 David Černý the exhibition. The winner has a solo exhibition in 2001 Tomáš Vaněk Zlín. In 2012 the competition was held for the sixth 2002 Markéta Othová time. The jury comprises Czech theoreticians from 2003 Michal Pěchouček various regions of the CR. 2004 Ján Mančuška www.galeriezlin.cz/cz/galerie/zlinsky-salon-mladych 73 SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY CZECH CONTEMPORARY ART GUIDE 74

SELECTED Antonín Matějček – Zdeněk Wirth, Modern and Steven A. Mansbach, Modern Art in Eastern Ladislav Daněk (ed.), Nechci v kleci! České a Contemporary Czech Art, London: George Rout- Europe, Cambridge : Cambridge University slovenské umění 1970–1989 ze sbírek Muzea umění BIBLIOGRAPHY tledge & Sons, 1924 Press, 1999 Olomouc / No Cage for Me! Czech and Slovak Art 1970–1989 from Collections of Olomouc Museum Rostislav Švácha (ed.), Devětsil. Czech Avant- Bojana Pejić – David Elliott – Iris Müller-Wester- of Art, (exhibition catalogue), Olomouc : The Olo- Garde of the 1920s and 1930s, (exhibition cata- mann (eds.), After the Wall. Art and Culture in mouc Museum of Art, 2008 logue), Oxford and London : Museum of Modern Post-Communist Europe, (exhibition catalogue), Art and Design Museum, 1990 Stockholm : Moderna Museet, 1999 František Kowolowski (ed.), Formáty transformace 89–09. Sedm pohledů na novou českou a sloven- Jaroslav Anděl (ed.), El Arte de la Vanguardia Timothy O. Benson – Éva Forgács (eds.), Between skou identitu / Formats of Transformation 89–09. en Checoslovaquis 1919–1938 / The Art of the Worlds. A Sourcebook of Central European Avant- Seven Views of New Czech and Slovak Identity, Avant-Garde in Czechoslovakia, 1918–1938, (exhibi- Gardes, 1910–1930, Los Angeles, Cambridge, Mass. (exhibition catalogue), Brno : The Brno House of tion catalogue), Valencia : Institut Valencia d’Art and London: Los Angeles County Museum of Art Arts, 2009 Modern, 1993 and MIT Press, 2002 Richard Adam – Alena Pomajzlová – Jiří Přibáň, Pavla Pečínková, Contemporary Czech Painting, Laura Hoptman – Tomáš Pospiszyl (eds.), Primary 1984–1995. Česká malba generace 80. let / Czech East Roseville: Gordon and Breach Arts Interna- Documents. A Sourcebook for Eastern and Central Painting of the 1980s Generation, (exhibition tional, 1993 European Art since the 1950s, New York : The catalogue), Brno: Mediagate and Wannieck Gallery, Museum of Modern Art, 2002 2010 Marta Smolíková – Ludvík Hlaváček (eds.), Orbis Fictus. Nová média v současném umění / New Petr Vaňous – Karel Srp – Olga Malá, Perfect Vladimír Birgus – Jan Mlčoch, Czech Photography Media in Contemporary Art, (exhibition catalogue), Tense. Malba dnes / Painting Today, (exhibition of the 20th Century, Prague : KANT, 2010 Prague : Soros Centre for Contemporary Arts, 1995 catalogue), Prague: Prague Castle Administration, 2003 Tomáš Vlček (ed.), Modern and Contemporary Lenka Bydžovská – Vojtěch Lahoda – Karel Srp, Czech Art 1890–2010 (2 Parts), Prague : National Czech Modern Art, 1900–1960, Prague : National Pavlína Morganová (ed.), Insiders. Nenápadná Gallery, 2010 Galery, 1995 generace druhé poloviny 90. let / The Unobtrusive Generation of the Late 1990s, (exhibition cata- Pavel Vančát, Mutující médium. Fotografi e v Laura J. Hoptman (ed.), Beyond Belief. Contem- logue), Brno and Prague : The Brno House of Arts českém umění 1990–2010 / Mutating Medium. porary Art from East Central Europe, (exhibition and Academic Research Centre of the Academy Photography in Czech Art 1990–2010, (exhibition catalogue), Chicago : Museum of Contemporary of Fine Arts, 2004 catalogue), Prague : Fotograf 07 and Rudolfi num Art, 1995 Gallery, 2011 [English translation enclosed] České ateliéry. 71 umělců současnosti / Czech Stu- Vojtěch Lahoda – Karel Srp (eds.), Czech Art dios. 71 Contemporary Artists, Prague: Art CZ, 2005 Pavlína Morganová (ed.), Začátek století / The 1900–1990. From the Collections at the Prague Beginning of the Century, 2000–2010, (exhibition City Gallery – House of the Golden Ring, Prague: Richard Adam – Lenka Lindaurová – Jana catalogue), Řevnice and Pilsen : Arbor vitae and Prague City Gallery, [1998] Ševčíková – Jiří Ševčík – Jiří Ptáček, Česká malba West Bohemian Gallery, 2012 1985–2005. Sbírka Richarda Adama / Czech Paint- Miroslav Petříček jr. – Olga Malá – Karel Srp, ing 1985–2005. The Richard Adam Collection, Brno: Piotr Piotrowski, Art and Democracy in Post-Com- Současné umění / Contemporary collection. Czech Mediagate, 2006 munist Europe, London : Reaktion Books, 2012 Art in the ‘90s, (exhibition catalogue), Prague : Prague City Gallery 1998 Jiří Švestka – Tomáš Vlček (eds.), Czech Cubism Jiří Ševčík – Edith Jeřábková (eds.), Ostrovy 1909–1925. Art, Architecture, Design, Prague: i3 CZ odporu. Mezi první a druhou moderností, Aspekte/Positionen. 50 Jahre Kunst aus Mitteleu- and Modernista, 2006 1985–2012 / Islands of Resistance. Between the ropa, 1949–1999 / Aspects/Positions. 50 Years of First and Second Modernity, 1985–2012, (exhibition Art in Central Europe, 1949–1999, (exhibition cata- Marika Kupková (ed.), Marek. Sbírka současného catalogue), Prague : Academic Research Centre logue), Vienna : Museum moderner Kunst Stiftung českého a slovenského výtvarného umění / of the Academy of Fine Arts, 2012 Ludwig Wien, 1999 A Collection of Contemporary Czech and Slovak Art, Brno : Zdeněk and Ivo Marek, 2007 Vít Havránek (ed.), Akce slovo pohyb prostor. Experimenty v umění šedesátých let / Action Word Petr Vaňous, Resetting. Jiné cesty k věcnosti / Movement Space. Experimental Art of the Sixties, Alternative Ways to Objectivity, (exhibition cata- (exhibition catalogue), Prague: Prague City Gallery, logue), Prague : Prague City Gallery, 2007 1999 Matthew S. Witkowsky (ed.), Foto. Modernity in Central Europe, 1918–1945, (exhibition catalogue), Washington : National Gallery of Art, 2007 75 INDEX CZECH CONTEMPORARY ART GUIDE 76

INDEX Dopitová Milena 28, 29, 36, 47, 72 Klímová Barbora 35, 39, 47, 71 Morganová Pavlína 9, 52, 54, 74 Duchamp Marcel 19 Klodová Lenka 36 Motyčka Petr 36 Klyuykov Alexey 45, 71 Moyzes Tamara 36 E Kmentová Eva 21 Munch Edvard 13 Effenberger Vratislav 17 Kmeťová Ľubomíra 32 Mucha Alfons 13 Knížák Milan 21, 26, 43 Muzika František 15 F Koblasa Jan 18 Fára Libor 17, 19 Kocman J. H. 21 N Flusser Vilém 29 Kokolia Vladimír 27, 45, 71 Načeradský Jiří 21, 24, 25 Franta Roman 32 Kolář Jiří 19, 20, 41, 70 Nedoma Petr 51, 60 Frešo Viktor 36 Kolářová Běla 19, 41 Nepraš Karel 21, 22 ARTISTS, THEORETICIANS, CURATORS Funke Jaromír 16 Koleček Michal 54 Nesázal Michal 28, 71 Kolečková Zdena 36 Nezval Vítězslav 15, 16 A G Kolíbal Stanislav 19, 22, 42, 72 Němec Rudolf 22 Aktual (movement) 21, 43 Gabriel Michael 26, 27, 71 Kopecký Václav 64 Nikitinová Alice 34 Alt Hynek 35, 64 Gadžiová Ladislava 34, 72 Kotzmannová Alena 38, 48 Nikl Petr 25, 26, 27, 32, 44, 71 Artamonov Vasil 34, 45, 71 Gebauer Kurt 24, 25 Kotík Jan 16, 17, 41 Novák Luděk 21 Gilbert Andrew 64 Kotík Jan Jakub 36 Novotný Jaromír 34 B Gočár Josef 14 Koťátková Eva 34, 35, 37, 48, 64, 71 Balabán Daniel 26 Grygar Milan 19, 20, 42, 64 Kovanda Jiří 22, 23, 26, 28, 34, 43, 63, 71, 72 O Baladrán Zbyněk 33, 35, 38, 45, 53, 64 Guma Guar (group) 36 Kozelka Milan 24 Osma / Eight (group) 14 Balcar Jiří 18, 19 Gutai Group 19 Kramář Vincenc 14, 51, 64 Othová Markéta 28, 30, 49, 71 Balcar Karel 32 Guttfreund Otto 14, 57 Křižovatka / Crossroad (group) 19, 20, 41, 42 Ouhel Ivan 24, 25 Baráčková Daniela 37 Kubík Tomáš 32 Beran Zdeněk 18 H Kubišta Bohumil 14 P Beránek Jiří 24, 25 Hanel Olaf 22 Kupka František 13, 57 Pachmanová Martina 52, 68 Bishop Claire 38, 39 Havránek Vít 45, 52, 53, 68, 73 Kuriš Martin 32 Padrta Jiří 19, 20 Bláha Václav 25 Hilmar Karel 19 Kvíčala Petr 26 Palcr Zdeněk 21 Bolf Josef 32, 34, 46, 64, 72 Hlaváček Ludvík 52, 68, 73 Palla Marian 24 Borozan Vjera 53 Hodonský František 24 L Pasta 34 Boštík Václav 18, 19 Hoffmeister Adolf 15 Labuda Radim 36, 71 Pasterňák Petr 32 Boudník Vladimír 17, 18 Hošek Jakub 34 Lang Dominik 36, 39, 40, 48, 54, 64 Pavlík Petr 25 Bourriaud Nicolas 38, 40 Humhal Pavel 28 Lhotský Zdeněk 27 Pešánek Zdeněk 16 Breton André 16 Hůla Jiří 68 Lysáček Petr 28 Pěchouček Michal 33, 34, 37, 38, 49, 71 Brikcius Eugen 21, 22 Petrová Eva 21 Brody Ondřej 36, 64 I M Pfeiffer Jan 64 Bromová Veronika 27, 29 Istler Josef 16, 17 Magid Václav 52, 54 Picasso Pablo 14 Mainer Martin 27, 71 Piesen Robert 18 C J Máj / May (group) 19 Pištek Jan 26 Císař Karel 52 Janošek Čestmír 18 Makovský Vincenc 16 Pištěk Theodor 70 Císařovský Tomáš 26, 27 Janoušek František 16, 21 Malá Olga 52, 73, 74 Písařík Petr 28 Chalupecký Jindřich 16, 17, 19, 21, 23, 24, 51, 59 Janoušková Věra 21 Malevič Kazimir 19 Pitín Daniel 34 Chatrný Dalibor 24, 71, 72 Jasanský Lukáš 27, 29, 45, 47, 64, 71 Malich Karel 19, 22, 42 Placht Oto 26 Chisa Aneta Mona 36 Jencks Charles 25 Malina Petr 32, 34 Plíšková Naděžda 21 Chrobák Ondřej 52, 53 Jeřábková Edith 52, 54, 74 Mančuška Ján 33, 34, 35, 37, 38, 48, 63, 71 Podel Bal (group) 36 Čapek Josef 15 Jetelová Magdalena 24, 31, 43 Masker 34, 63 Point 34 Černický Jiří 27, 37, 46, 64 Jirous Ivan (Magor) 22, 23, 24 Matasová Adéla 24 Polák Martin 27, 29, 38, 45, 47, 64, 71 Černý David 27, 28, 30, 31, 32, 46, 61 Jirousová Věra 22 Matoušek František 32, 34 Pondělí / Monday (group) 28, 47, 63 Čiháková- Noshiro Vlasta 32 Jiřička Eva 37 Matuška Jakub 64 Pospiszyl Tomáš 52, 54, 74 John Martin 25, 26 Medek Mikuláš 17, 18, 19 Příhoda Jiří 27, 30, 71 D Medková Emila 17 Ptáček Jiří 52, 54, 74 David Jiří 25, 26, 27, 28, 32, 51, 52, 54 K Merta Jan 27, 32, 44, 63, 72 Demartini Hugo 18, 20, 22, Kafka Ivan 22, 24, 25 Merta Vladimír 23 R Devětsil / Butterbur (group) 15, 73 Kalhous Michal 29, 30 Miler Karel 22 Ra (group) 16 Díaz Federico 27, 46, 64 Kamera Scura (group) 36, 63, 72 Milkov Stefan 27 Rafani 36, 39, 40 Diviš Stanislav 25, 26, 27, 32, 51 Kintera Krištof 33, 36, 47, 72 Mirvald Vladimír 19 Raimanová Ivona 52 Dobeš Milan 20 Klein Yves 21 Mlčoch Jan 22, 74 Rakušanová Marie 33 77 INDEX CZECH CONTEMPORARY ART GUIDE 78

Rathouský Luděk 34 T Fotograf Gallery 62 artmap.cz 69 Rittstein Lukáš 30, 71 Teige Karel 15, 16, 17 Futura 34, 60, 61 artyčok.cz 69 Rittstein Michael 24, 25 Ther Marek 37 Gallery of Fine Art in Cheb 58, 71 Ateliér 69 Rodin August 13 Thýn Jiří 35, 50, 64 Gallery of Fine Art in Zlín 58, 72 Flash Art 69 Róna Jaroslav 25, 26, 27 Tikal Václav 16, 17 Gallery of Fine Art Ostrava 57 jlbjlt.net 69 Ruller Tomáš 24 Titlová Margita 23, 24 Gallery of the Central Bohemia Region Notebook for Art, Theory Rykr Zdeněk 16 Tkáčová Lucie 36 (GASK) 5, 8 and Related Zones 68 Toyen 15, 16 Galerie mladých / Young Artists´Gallery 62 Umělec / Artist 69 S Trasa (group) 19, 36 Galerie TIC 62 Umění / Art 68 Salák Milan 32, 52 Trnka Jiří 70 House of Art České Budějovice 52, 60 Ságlová Zorka 19, 21, 22 Tvrdohlaví / Stubborn (group) Hunt Kastner Artworks 4, 5, 46, 48, 50, 63, 64 Sceranková Pavla 36, 37, 54 Tvrdošíjní (group) 25, 26, 27, 36, 44, 45, 63 Jelení Gallery 61, 68 ART PRIZES Seifert Josef 15 Typlt Jiří 32 Jiří Švestka Gallery 42, 47, 63, 64 Sekal Zbyněk 18, 19 Karlin Studios 34, 60, 61 Critics´Award for Young Painting 70, 71 Selg Markus 64 U Laboratorio 63 EXIT Prize 72 Serranová Mariana 55 UB 12 (group) 19, 36 Liberec Regional Galllery 58 Jindřích Chalupecký Award 70, 71 Skála František 25, 26, 27, 44, 71, 72 Urban Otto 33 Mánes Gallery 14, 59 Michal Ranný Prize 72 Skála Jiří 35, 38, 39, 71 Meet Factory 34, 59, 61 Personality of the Year 71, 72 Skrepl Vladimír 25, 26, 27, 32, 44, 63, 71, 72 V Moravian Gallery in Brno 57, 71, 72 Prize NG 333 70 Skupina 42 / Group 42 16, 41 Vajd Aleksandra 35, 64 Museum Kampa 20, 21, 57 The Artist has a Prize 71 Slavická Milena 32 Váchal Josef 14 Museum of Decorative Arts Václav Chad Award 71, 72 Sopko Jiří 21, 22, 24, 25, 72 Vachtová Ludmila 51 in Prague 15, 56, 57 Soukup Vít 32, 34 Valenta Jiří 18 National Gallery Sozanský Jiří 24 Valoch Jiří 22, 52 in Prague 30, 51, 52, 56, 57, 70 Srp Karel 52, 73, 74 Válová Jitka 19, 21 Olomouc Museum of Art 56, 57 Steklík Jan 21, 22 Válová Květa 19, 21 Polansky Gallery 47, 63 Sterec Pavel 49 Váňa Radek 52 Prinz Prager 63 Stratil Václav 27, 28, 29, 45, 71 Vančát Pavel 30, 52, 55, 74 Rudolfinum Gallery 52, 60 Střížek Antonín 26, 27, 32 Vaněk Tomáš 33, 34, 38, 39, 40, 50, 71 SVIT 45, 47, 63, 64 Sursum (group) 14 Vaňous Petr 55, 74 Školská 28 61, 62 Surůvka Jiří 29, 37, 50 Venturi Robert 25 Tranzitdisplay 61 Suška Čestmír 25, 26, 27 Veselý Aleš 18, 22 Vernon Gallery 64 Sutnar Josef 15 Vincourová Kateřina 27, 30, 31, 71 West Bohemian Gallery in Pilsen 57 Svoboda Tomáš 35 Volné seskupení 12/15 Pozdě, ale přeci Zdeněk Sklenář Gallery 42, 63, 64 Svobodová Jitka 24 / Free Coalition Better Late Sýkora Zdeněk 19, 20, 22, 42, 64 than Never (group) 24, 25, 36 SCHOOLS AND RESEARCH CENTRES Š Z Šedá Kateřina 39, 40, 50, 71 Zálešák Jan 52, 55 Academy of Arts, Architecture Šejn Miloš 22 Zemánek Bohumil 21 and Design 65, 66, 68 Šerých Jan 34 Zet Martin 36 Academy of Fine Arts in Prague 65, 66, 69 Ševčík Jiří 25, 32, 52, 74 Zoubek Olbram 21 Academic Research Centre Ševčíková Jana 25, 32, 74 Zrzavý Jan 14, 15 of the Academy of Fine Arts 67, 68 Šiklová Jiřina 51 Ztohoven (group) 36 Archive of the Fine Arts 67, 68 Šimera Evžen 34, 72 Zubek Petr 28 Centre for Contemporary Art 52, 61, 67, 68 Šiml Michal 36 Faculty of Art and Design Šimotová Andriena 19, 21, 22, 71 of the Jan Evangelist Purkyně 52, 65, 66 Šíma Josef 16 MUSEUMS, GALLERIES AND EXHIBITON HALLS Faculty of Art of Ostrava University 66 Škoda Michal 52, 60 Faculty of Fine Art of the Brno Špaňhel Jakub 32, 34 Aleš South Bohemia Gallery 58 Technical University 66 Špála Václav 15, 19 Brno House of Arts 52, 59, 60 Tranzit.cz 53, 61, 67, 68 Švankmajer Jan 43 Chemistry Gallery 63 Štefková Zuzana 33, 52, 55 City Gallery Prague 51, 52, 53, 57, Štembera Petr 22 Dox Centre for Contemporary Art 59, 61, 68 MAGAZINES AND INTERNET Štenclová Kateřina 32 Drdova Gallery 63, 64 Štýrský Jindřich 15, 16 Dvorak Sec Contemporary 46, 63, 64 Art+Antiques 69, 71 Švéda Tomáš 24, 25 East Bohemia Gallery in Pardubice 58 artalk.cz 69, 71 A NEW WAY TO NAVIGATE THROUGH THE CZECH ARTS

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Editors: Lucie Ševčíková Eva Žáková

Autors: Lucie Drdová (Profi les of Artists, Private Commercial Galleries, Exhibition Halls and Non-commercial Galleries) Edith Jeřábková (Profi les of Artists, Theoreticions and Curators) Pavlína Morganová (Czech Art of the 20th and 21st Centuries) Jan Skřivánek (Museums of Art, Art Education and Research) Silvie Šeborová (Profi les of Artists, Art Prizes, Art Schools)

Translation: Phil Jones

Design: Colmo

Photo: National Gallery in Prague Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague Hunt Kastner Gallery Muzeum Kampa Ztichla klika Gallery Dvorak Sec Gallery Association of Jindrich Chapulecky Archives of artists and curators

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© 2012 Institut umění - Divadelní ústav Arts and Theatre Institute Celetná 17 110 00 Praha 1 www.idu.cz www.culturenet.cz E [email protected]

ISBN 978-80-7008-294-2 as its 651st publication