Those who had an unsatisfyingly brief glimpse of the graphic works by Czech artists at the Czech Economic and Culture Office's stall at the Taipei International Book Exhibition last month, are now given the opportunity to enjoy a bigger selection of Czech graphic art at a new exhibition co-organized by the Office.
Windows to the Mind: Modern Czech Graphic Art (捷克現代版畫藝術三人展), currently on show at the National Museum of History (國立歷史博物館), showcases 32 works by three major artists from the Czech Republic.
PHOTO: VICO LEE, TAIPEI TIMES
Jiri Anderle, Karel Demel and Oldrich Kulhanek, all now in their 60s, are members of the Hollar Association of Czech Graphic Artists. The association was set up in 1917 in memory of Vaclav Hollar, 17th century Bohemian etcher whose achievements in graphic arts have put him among the ranks of Albert Durer and Rembrandt -- though less well known.
PHOTO: VICO LEE, TAIPEI TIMES
Jiri Anderle, a painter and printmaker, said that his generation had been deeply affected by 40 years of communist rule. He wrote in an introduction to the exhibition: "My generation was born into war. Then, for 40 years, our country was separated from the free world by an iron curtain. My journey through the oppressive labyrinth of the times has been reflected in everything that I have created."
Anderle's 10 mixed media works on show are of a portrait cycle on classical composers made around 1992. The musicians are presented not just as they looked but as expressions of their psyche. By displaying the sources of the composers' creative energy -- their loved ones or the symbols of their times -- inside the pictures, Anderle created convincing depictions of the master musicians as human beings.
Karel Demel is well known for his depiction of disturbing dreamscapes. Working as a trombone player, double bassist and singer in his 20s, Demel took several exams to enter university arts departments, without success, but later worked as a special assistant to Anderle.
The struggle of human beings is expressed with a cold tension. In disturbing works like The Harbor man seemingly finds peace in the presence of a deity -- yet the picture seems to deride the self-deceiving faith of human beings. If Demel's dramatic intentions are sometimes a little too obvious, they are nevertheless quite powerful.
Oldrich Kulhanek's lithographs, are more light-hearted. His incisive satire of the conflicts in the human mind, as in Face Stuck Together and Interview , speaks straight to one's inner self.
Windows to the Mind: Modern Czech Graphic Art will be on show at the National Museum of History, 49, Nanhai Rd, Taipei (臺北市南海路四十九號) till April 20.
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