Selected Topics from the Czech Art History III

Winter Semester of 2020/2021

Ing. Mgr. Markéta Čejková

Villa Müller (excursion - entrance fee, limited number of participants)

The lecture will be held in Villa Müller, designed by Adolf Loos and being an excellent example of modernist architecture. The tour will be focused on the architecture and Raumplan, original design concept developed by Adolf Loos and will also cover the history of the villa and the family as well as the furniture, fittings and art inside the villa.

Literature:
Jana Hornekova, Karel Ksandr, Maria Szadkowska, Vladimir Slapeta: Villa Müller, Prague 2002

Jože Plečnik and Otto Rothmayer (lecture)

The lecture will discuss Plečnik ouevre completed in Prague focusing on Prague Castle Reconstruction and the church of Nejsvětější Srdce Páně built in Prague – Vinohrady and a few other minor constructions. Furthermore, the lecture will cover the cooperation of Jože Plečnik and his student, architect Otto Rothmayer as well as buildings and other projects designed by Otto Rothmayer. A part of the lecture will introduce Božena Rothmayerová, wife of Otto, who was a talented textile designer.

Literature:
Zdeněk Lukeš, Damjan Prelovšek, Tomáš Valenta (eds.): Josip Plečnik – Architekt Pražského hradu, Praha 1997
Zdeněk Lukeš, Jiří Podrazil: Jože Plečnik. Průvodce po stavbách v České republice, Praha 2012
Zdeněk Lukeš: Rothmayer, Janák, Fragner. Průvodce po architektuře na Pražském hradě, 30.-60.léta XX.století

Marie Fiřtová, M.A.

Fin de Siècle and Czech Art (lecture)

The end of the 19th century, known as the fin de siècle, is characterized by blending of different artistic styles and movements. Another typical sign of this period was individualism and the originality of art expression. Czech artists, who often gained their education in Munich, Paris or both, also learned how to work with light, which was evident in their paintings as well as drawings. In contrast to contrived historical figural scenes which played the main role in the past years, modern artists found their inspiration in the city life with its busy roads, coffee bars, restaurants, and nostalgic narrow Prague streets. Some of them could not bear the reality of the present, and so they lived their dreams and fairy-tales via symbolist artworks and became an important part of the Czech secession movement. The aim of this lecture is to show the diversity of the Czech art at the end of the 19thcentury with all its leading figures.

Literature:
Michael Huig et al, Prague 1900: poetry and ecstasy. Amsterdam: Van Gogh Museum, 1999
Taťána Petrasová – Rostislav Švácha (eds.), Art in the Czech Lands 800–2000, Praha: Artefactum – Arbor vitae societas, 2017
Roman Prahl, Bohemians in Prague in the latter half of the nineteenth century, Ars 45.2012, 2, p. 143-154.

Tereza Havelková

Czech modern art and totalitarian regimes (lecture)

Politics played an important role in modern Czech (or precisely Czechoslovak) art. From the 1930s to late 1980s there were two totalitarian regimes which set bounderies to art and often suppressed any free spirit in the public art scene. This lecture will deal with the art of late 1930s to early 1950s hen the situation was particularly difficult. It will cover different approaches of artists, their resistance, expressions of their fear and aversion and different ways to fight for freedom which some artists elaborated. We will also consider the problematic relationship between artists and ideology which not always had the character of rejection.

Literature:

Taťána Petrasová – Rostislav Švácha (eds.), Art in the Czech Lands 800–2000, Praha: Artefactum – Arbor vitae societas, 2017
Jonathan BOLTON: The Ruins of a Republic: Czech Modernism after Munich, 1938-1939 in Julia Hell and Andreas Schönle (eds): Ruins of Modernity, Durham, NC, 2010, pp. 118-132
Hvezdoslav STEFAN: Czech Modernism 1900-1945, 1989, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, 1990 (available at the National Library in Prague)
Marta FILIPOVÁ: Modernity, History, and Politics in Czech Art, New York, Routledge, 2019
From the magazine Umění / Art:
Umění / Art 4 LXVI 2018: Jindřich TOMAN: The woman is hollow; Toyen’s Melancholy in-sights, pp. 283 – 295
Umění / Art 6 XLII 1994: Karel SRP: The techniques of Fate; Certain principles of the work of Jiří Kolář, pp. 445 – 453
Umění 3, ročník XII 1964: Jaroslav SLAVÍK: Josef Čapek’s Last Works, p. 281
Umění / Art XLVIII 2000: Keith HOLZ: Exile Artists Look Back: Between the Tunnel Vision of Antifascism and the Constraints of Appeasement, pp. 55 – 68
In German:
Umění / Art 6 XLII 1994: Mahulena NEŠLEHOVÁ: Klinge und Samt – informelle Strukturen in der tschechischen Kunst, pp. 454-458
Umění 3, ročník XXXIII 1985: Olga UHROVÁ: František Hudeček – Die Strasengänger, p. 269
In French:
Umění 5, ročník XIII. 1965: František ŠMEJKAL: La Peinture ImaginativeTcheque, pp. 460-461
Umění 5, ročník XIII. 1965: Jindřich CHALUPECKÝ: Surréalisme et les Années Trente, p. 474
Umění 5, ročník XIII. 1965: Eva PETROVÁ: Le Bilandu Surréalisme, p. 483
Umění 5, ročník XIII. 1965: Luděk NOVÁK: Contribution a l’appréciation de l’avant-garde Picturale Tcheque de l’entre-guerres, pp. 492-493
Umění 3, ročník XII 1964: Eva PETROVÁ: Le „Mythe de la civilisation“ dans le Oeuvres des Peinresdu „Groupe 42“, pp. 252-253

Klára Jarolímková

The Renaissance Architecture in Bohemia (excursion to the Nelahozeves Castle)

The Nelahozeves Castle, one of the great preserved renaissance castles in Bohemia, was built between 1552 and 1612. Our excursion will explore the Czech renaissance architecture in relation to its Italian and French models by Andrea Palladio and Sebastiano Serlio. Indeed, the Nelahozeves Castle as well as Kaceřov Castle, which is one of the first renaissance castles in Bohemia, were both inspired by the north Italian architecture. These two were properties of Florian Griespek von Griespach. They are connected with the name of Bonifac Wohlmut, the royal architect in Prague with Italian origins and the builder of the famous Queen Anne's Summer Palace and the Star Summer Palace in Prague. Nelahozeves Castle houses today the art collection of the family Lobkowicz, who is the owner of this castle since 1623.

Literature:
MUCHKA, Ivan: Architecture of the Renaissance, Prague 2001
PETRASOVÁ, Taťána; ŠVÁCHA, Rostislav (eds): Art in the Czech Lands 800-2000, Prague 2017
MUCHKA, Ivan; PURŠ, Ivo; DOBALOVÁ, Sylva; HAUSENBLASOVÁ, Jaroslava: The Star: Archduke Ferdinand II of Austria and his summer palace in Prague, Prague 2017
KOBRLOVÁ, Zuzana;MUCHKA, Ivan; RIEDLBAUCHOVÁ, Tereza: Já, Hvězda: průvodcerenesančníperloustředníEvropy / I, Star: a guide to a renaissance pearl of Central Europe / Ich, der Stern: einLeitfadendurcheinePerleder Renaissance in Mitteleuropa, Prague 2014
FUČÍKOVÁ, Eliška; BRADBURNE, James M.; BUKOVINSKÁ, Beket; HAUSENBLASOVÁ, Jaroslava; KONEČNÝ, Lubomír;MUCHKA, Ivan; ŠRONĚK, Michal (eds):Rudolf II and Prague: the court and the city: the Imperial Court and Residential City as the Cultural and Spiritual Heart of Central Europe, Prague 1997
FUČÍKOVÁ, Eliška; BUKOVINSKÁ, Beket; MUCHKA, Ivan: Die Kunst am HofeRudolfs II., Prag 1991
FUČÍKOVÁ, Eliška; BUKOVINSKÁ Beket; MUCHKA, Ivan: RodolpheII:Monarque et mécène, Paris 1990
MUCHKA, Ivan (ed): The Renaissance, in: The story of Prague Castle, Prague 2003, 241–334
MUCHKA, Ivan: Die Bautätigkeit Kaiser Ferdinands I. in Prag, in:Kaiser Ferdinand I., 1503–1564. Das Werden der Habsburgermonarchie, Wien 2003, 249–258
StudiaRudolphina:the bulletin of the Centre for research of art and culture of the time of Rodolph II.

The Artificialism of Štyrský and Toyen and the Czech avant-garde of the twenties (lecture)

The Artificialism was a unique and original movement created by two Czech artists: Jindřich Štyrský and Toyen. They founded their own artistic style in Paris during their stay in 1925. Influenced by the contemporary avant-gardes, they defined their style in the opposition to French surrealism and cubism. They were friends with many poets from the Czech artistic group Devětsil. In their manifest of Artificialism they identified a painter with a poet. What is the artificialist painting? How was the artificialist work influenced by reality, dreams, memories, unconscious, poetry and exoticism? We will explore the relation between Czech avant-garde and artificialist painters in twenties.

Literature:
BRETON, André: Le surréalisme et la peinture, Paris 1928
BYDŽOVSKÁ, Lenka; SRP, Karel: Jindřich Štyrský, Prague 2007
HUEBNER, Karla Tonine: Erotism, Identity, and Cultural Context: Toyen and the Prague Avant-guarde, Thesis on University of Pittsburgh, 2008
IRELAND, Sophie: Paris-Prague: regards surréalistes croisés, Naissance poétique d’une ville