Paintings exhibition

There is an interesting exhibition you can visit in City Gallery Prague, which is situated in the 4th floor of the main building of the Prague Municipal Library, Marianske Square nr. 1, not far from the Old town Square.

The exhibition is called Bytosti odnikud, in English Beings from nowhere, with a subtitle Metamorphoses of Academic Principles in paintings of the first half of the twentieth century. The title of the exhibition quite appropriately says what it is about. It presents works which were made with aims to present human body, somehow following academic principles of its depictions, set centuries ago. Although those principles were seriously “overcomed“ by avant-garde movements in late 19th and first half of 20th century, there obviously still were authors, who followed old academic principles of realistic depiction of human body, and especially popular depictions of female naked body.

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… made from all the materials; from wood to gingerbread, from glass to paintings. The Christmas are coming again to the Highest Burgrave of the Prague Castle. The third year of the “Betlemy” – Betlehems exhibition has started. Betlem is what in Czech stands for the Nativity Scene. The artpieces were made by the ‘Betlemari’ – Union of Nativity Scene Makers

The visitors shouldn’t miss especially the replicas of an old Nativity Scene puppet theatre, which entertained Prague citizens more than a hundred years ago, the gingerbread pieces, or the ceramic one from the 1930’s, originally made for the St. Vitus Church. The exhibition is at the Highest Burgrave of the Prague Castle and it is opened until 4th January.

Pictures, graphics and sculptures of contemporary Czech artists are until the end of November displayed in the New Town City Hall in Prague 2.

Authors of the exhibited art pieces are the members f the New association of Prague Artists, founded in 1992 by the painter Jiri Naceradsky. The main aim of the union is to help those, who are talented, yet couldn’t exhibit because they weren’t known. This idea brought the (not just Prague) art scene many fresh pieces, which made the association famous and very attractive ever since beginning.

The exhibition called Rande 54 introduces for example art pieces of Alena Petrickova or Zdenka Reinerova, the ‘art inspired by nature’. The exhibiting spaces at the City Hall are opened daily from 10 to 18 hours.

The exhibition devoted to fifty years of one of the most famous painters in the Czech Republic opens. Hardly any Czech artist is so well known to all the generations like Adolf Born. It is his merry approach to art and life, but also his diligence – he illustrated many books for children and adults alike, he also created models for animated movies – seventy of them(!), the number of books he illustrated is 225.

Born’s production is witty and funny. They deal a lot with the artists passions – literature and travelling. And with the later deals the exhibition in Hollar gallery – the name is “Merry voyage of life (50 years with graphic)”. And you can surely see a honest cut through the artist’s funny-psychedelic-colourful-witty-sexy-creative artwork. Born is the Czech author which legend has settled during his life already.

Hollarova Galerie, Smetanovo nabrezi 6 Prague, Until 19th October everyday exept Monday 10-13 and 14-18.

Pictures, paintings, theatre or advertisement leaflets of Czech Art Nouveau artists are now being shown to all those who love this light and airy art in the Bethlehem Chapel Gallery in the centre of our metropolis.

The exhibition called Ceska Secese is opened daily from 10 to 18, until 19th September 2008.

Beside the art-pieces of Czech artists, such as Frantisek Kupka, Ludvik Kuba or Max Svabinsky, who were granted the most space of the exhibition, the biggest space traditionally belongs to the Art Nouveau master Alfons Mucha.

Antonin Stiburek returns to Manes after 36 years. This 66 yo legend, who once was a student of Arnost Paderlik, returns to show, why he gained seven various individual prizes of the World Art Triennale in Osaca.

The name of the Exhibition, Nekonecny Obraz (The Neverending Painting) indicates, what is going to be seen there. That is the author’s life work, the two metre tall canvases which individual pieces use – apart from classical painting – combined techniques, like ceramics reliefs, or even originals made from egg shells.

In Manes, it is possible to see a part of the Neverending painting, 54 pages to be specific. The total is made of 86 component pieces and it is longer 130 metres. Manes Gallery, Masarykovo nabrezi.

Various forms of relations between men and women is the topic of the new exhibition at Laska – touha – vasen at the Clam Gallas Pallace in Husova Street. The subtitle of the exhibition is Erotic Themes in 15th to 19th Century Art.

The exhibition takes place in exhibition spaces of the Clam Gallas Pallace in Husova Street and was prepared by Prague City Archives and National Gallery in Prague in cooperation with the Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague.

Love, desire and passions fascinate humans since the beginning of ages, some ways how those themes were depicted in European western culture from 15th to 19th centuries can be seen on the exhibition. The exhibition does not really try for some “higher intellectual aims” – as to come with new discoveries in the field of Art history. The main aim is to make an attractive event for visitors, who can enjoy beautiful pieces of Art, sometimes even quite provocative ones. Although, there are some pieces, which are exhibited on the public for the very first time, because of their provocative topic.

There are to be seen for example works of British Artist Aubrey Beardsley, who made very erotic illustrations to antique comedy Lysistrata (written by famous Aristophanes, the story is about women who decide to stop pleasing their men unlit they stop their fights). It is said that Beardsley did not want this illustrations to be preserved after his death, but they were and now you can enjoy watching them. Among other famous Artists whose works are exhibited on Love – Desire – Passion exhibition can be named Albrecht Durer, Fransisco Jose Goya de Lucientes or Joos van Cleve. And there is also a separate section which shows works done by Czech Artists of 19th century as Josef Manes, Vaclav Brozik, Vaclav Hynais and so on.

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This collection of clocks and watches from Prague Castle works together to form a fascinating whole, documenting the development of the measurement of time, interior design during the last 250 years, and the craftsmanship of renowned watchmakers and clockmakers from Prague and Western Europe.

The exhibited clocks are regarded as pieces of period movement and art-craft work, forming the reason why they were accompanied by other items from the Prague Castle collections. The visitors have a chance to, at one place, see items from the representative spaces, offices, cabinets, habitable rooms and depositories of the Prague Castle and Lany chateau.

There are 103 clockworks and their parts exhibited, accompanied by 23 collection pieces – comodas, mirrors, chandeliers etc. Event: 19.06.2008 – 28.09.2008. Venue: The Imperial Stables of The Prague Castle

From the 8th of May till the 30th of June, the CTE group introduce Prague first health food festival, supported by the Prague marathon. In very short, the concept is about introducing the athletes and Prague’s inhabitants with health food.

Through 15 renown chefs offering besides their normal menu a special festival menu, they let all interested discover, that health food is not only healthy, but can also be very tasty.

The CTE group, the official ground handler of the Prague marathon, aim to get as much as possible people to come and try and get inspiration from this festival. They try to get across the message that to live healthy is to feel fit and perform. If you want to know more, you can continue to http://www.healthfoodfestival.com/

Mikolas Ales is one of the most important and well-known Czech artists. Now you have a change to see his works at the big retrospective exhibition called Mikolas Ales 1852 – 2007, which is being held in the Prague Castle Riding School until 20th of April 2008.

In the exhibition you can see representative overview of Ales´ work, mostly he was inspired by the Czech history and traditions. There are drawings and paintings on the theme of the life of Old Slavonic people, who lived in Bohemia in ancient times, scenes of important moments of the Czech history, pictures depicting the idyllic life of Czech lands inhabitants or illustrating national stories, proverbs and legends.

The complete information is here. You know you want to know more!

Contemporary art, that stands out of the main art establishment. This is how the International triennale of contemporary art ITCA 2008 defines itself.

The Exhibition Palace introduces hundreds of pieces of art from the Czech and Slovak Republic, Great Britain, France, Germany or Japan. After Prague Biennale, it is another exhibition aiming to increase interest of public in contemporary art.

There will be workshops and seminars, media campaign is prepared, web pages and catalog are ready. Curators’ choice focuses on non-eatabled art forms, sensitive to what represents esthetic, genre, ideological trends and conventions.

3rd June to 14th September 2008, National Gallery Prague, The Trade Fair Palace (Veletržní palác)

If you want to see some works of contemporary Czech young and successful painters, the good choice is to visit the exhibition, which is now held in The City Gallery Prague in exhibition spaces of the Municipal Library.

Among the artists who exhibit here are Jakub Hosek, who was already twice nominated for prestigious Chalupecky prize for young Czech artists, Petr Malina with his self-portraits, Jakub Spanhel, who became famous for his dark and sizable acryls, Josef Bolf, Petr Petrbok, Filip Cerny and many others, there are almost 30 of them.

The gallery is situated in the building of the Municipal Library, on Marianske Square, but the entrance to the gallery is from Valentinska Street, it is not far from Staromestka metro station (green line). They are open from Thursday to Sunday, always from 10 AM to 6 PM. And exhibition is to be here until 23rd of March 2008.

Read the whole article on prague.net

Michael Rittstein belong to the group of artists, who got to their specific way of expression, which they are probably not going to leave. His gestic paintings, brushed in impasto style are typical by its baroquelly surrealistic illusionism, amplified by poisonous colorfulness and dynamic mummery of characters and objects.

Michael Rittstein’s pictures are displayed as a part of the cycle „Projects, Probes, Experiments“, introducing large format works of art of the artist in dialogue with the unique architectural space of Small Hall of Trade Fair Palace in Prague.

MICHAEL RITTSTEIN´S LARGE FORMATS: THERE, Veletrzni Palac – Trade Fair Palace, Dukelskych hrdinu 47, until: 27th April 2008

From 6th November 2007 to 6th January 2008, visitors have an opportunity to see the exhibition of positive pieces by Emma Srncová. The pictures with dreamlike sceneries, levitating lovers, clowns on bicycles or smiling girls with fluttering hair will be exhibited till the first week of January 2008.

Clowns and Dwarves of Emma Srncova
This big retrospective exhibition of poetic, naive pictures by an author, who has held exhibitions for instance in Germany and Great Britain or Monaco, presents Prague 2 to Emma Srncova’s 65th birthday.

New Town Hall, Karlovo Square, Prague, to 6th January 2008. Everyday except Mo 10-18.

Vaclav Hollar (1607 – 1677) Exhibiton
_{Left: London by Hollar}

The year 2007 marks the four hundredth anniversary of the birth of Václav Hollar, and likewise the three hundred and thirtieth anniversary of his death. Václav Hollar belongs to the far from extensive category of the great Czech artists of past ages who are known to – and admired by – a wide range of international artistic experts as well as by the general public at home and abroad. For nearly all Czechs, his name has become almost synonymous with the graphic arts.

An entire floor has been set aside for the exhibition in the renowned Baroque Kinský Palace, where the interior spaces are particularly suited for the presentation of small-format artworks requiring an intimate atmosphere. In turn, the domestic scale of the palace interiors allows for the ensemble of work to be divided into smaller units representing individual periods of creation.

National Gallery in Prague
Palac Kinskych (Palace of Kinsky family), Staromestske Namesti (Old Town Square), Prague. tel: 224 810 758, www.NGPRAGUE.cz, Opened Daily except Mo 10-18. 11th October 2007 – 13th January 2008

Basic Fee: 100 CZK
From 4 pm: 50 CZK
Discounted: 50 CZK

A competitive exhibition of 5th International Triennial of Graphic named Transfery (Transfers) is possible to see until 11th November 2007 in the Old Town City Hall. Paintings shown are those selected from works of winners of International
Graphic Competitions from 2004-2007. Featured: various graphics from ex libris miniatures to large format installations.

The unique piece of this exhibition would be the Leviathan Eglé Kuckaitov’s mural painting, made by stamps. The 3×4 metes painting depicts a dialog of Franz Kafka and Latvian artist Chiurlionis, and took five days to complete.

Combination of old and new graphic techniques brought victory of the Prague triennial to Belgian Muriel Moreauov.

The young English painter Clare Woods’ paintings is possible to see in Jiri Svestka Gallery, Prague. Woods’ paintings celebrate contested space. The space is at the same time intimate and desolate. These are locations devoid of any particular focus and yet they are places of possible significance – places where someone might be conceived and, as likely, someone might expire.

Woods’ interest in depicting such ambiguous space, so often hidden or overlooked, is in that it is here where wider interests and concerns can be seen to overlap. For example: popular and folk traditions, the pagan and the orthodox and what we understand as urban and as rural.The paintings are derived from photographs of undergrowth.

Taken at night using a camera and flashgun, these images capture the bright colours and reflective surfaces of pockets of scrub. Other images record vegetation obscured not by nightfall but by snowfall. These are abstract paintings and yet within the endless possible readings of the forms that they contain they are somehow psychologically charged and, are uncanny – familiar and yet somehow sinister.

Jiri Svestka Gallery, until 20th October, Tue – Fri – 12.00 – 6.00 p.m. Sat – 11.00 a.m. – 6.00 p.m. Biskupsky dvur 6, Prague.

The well-known Czech artists, probably the only contemporary artist (if we exclude Knizak), whose greatness ranges over the Czech pond, has finally his own, long-expected center, here in Prague.

David Cerny, became “famous” after being locked-up by the communist side. At the time of dark communism, he expressed his artistic feeling by painting the Red Armada Tank on former Victory square pink (viz photo, he also erected the middle finger on it). After the wall came down, he made lots of project in the public space. My personal favorite were black, 3 meters long babies, with an air-conditioning shaft instead of a face, crawling up the Zizkovska vez (Zizkov Tower).

His Multicultural center MeetFactory, placed in a fabric hall at Smichovske nadrazi, will be presenting theatre, musicians, films and artists. But there are many other facilities; bookshop, video shop, café, dance club and many, many others.

The opening ceremony is 01th October 2007, and you can come to visit in the street Ke sklarne 15 ever since. The first exhibition is called “The Lost Innocence” and presents graffiti from artists, who painted it in there for the first time.

We are going to inform you about new MeetFactory projects from now on. Its homepage is www.meetfactory.cz

There are three traditional ways to look at Rudolph II – as an ineffective ruler, whose mistakes led directly to the Thirty Years’ War, the more gentle one as a great Renaissance art patron, and, finally – an adorer of occult arts and learning, standing as a seeder of the scientific revolution.

Rudolf loved collecting paintings, he spared no expense in acquiring great past masterworks, such as those of Durer and Brueghel. Rudolf’s galleries were the most impressive in Europe at the time, and the greatest collection of mannerism to this day.

As was customary at the time, the collection was private, but friends of the Emperor, artists, and professional scholars were allowed to study it. Regrettably, Rudolf’s successors did not appreciate the collection and it gradually fell into disarray.

The pieces of art collected by Rudolph II were packed and travelled to Vienna very soon after his death, and the rest were plundered by the Swedish armada. But now it is the time when they are, just for a short time, coming back to the authentic setting of Prague castle. It is possible to see four unique pieces – B. Spranger’s and H. Aachen’s paintings, and A. de Vriese statues. They cohere religious and mythological themes together with eroticism, which the Emperor especially favoured.

You can see the exhibition Rudolphian Beauty daily 9 – 18 in the Prague Castle Picture Gallery until 31th March 2008.

Emil Filla (1882 – 1953) was the leader of the avant-garde movement in Prague between WWI and WWII. A professor at the University of Applied Art, he idolized Vincent van Gogh, Pierre Bonnard and Edvard Munch.

Sometimes called “Czech Van Gogh”, found his style in Cubism. However, he included Expressionism and Surrealism into his paintings, some well-known depicting struggles among animals. Those in reality reflected his anxiety in the pre-war period. He was later imprisoned in the Buchenwald concentration camp during World War II. After his release, he began painting more naturally, creating some landscapes, that would be less provocative to the communists.

You can see his retrospective in the Riding school of Prague -(Jizdarna prazského hradu) daily 10–18, until 31. 10. 2007