The course provides an overview of the essential tendencies and personalities in Czech art from 1940s to 1990s. The course provides a survey of important art groups and individual artists and reflects their links in European and international tendencies, as well as art developments within political contexts.
As for 1940s, the course emphasizes the importance of the so-called "groups of the war period", but also stresses the importance of presonalities so far neglected. We will also look at surrealist and parasurrealist tendencies in these groups and outside them, and some time will be devoted to the local art scenes in regional or distric towns (Kolin, Zlin)
1950s: we will attempt to judge objectively the works of artists active in the style of socialist realism, map the activities of the surrealist and parasurrealist groups, Vladimir Boudnik as the pioneer of the so called explosionalism, and the iniciators of the "Czech grotesque," The Smidras (The Fiddlers).
The activities of well-known artistic groups will be described (May, The Route, UB12], however, we will also devote our attention to those which are lesser known (M52, RADAR]. We will trace the continuous change of official art doctrine from the 50s to the 80s and survey the key personalities of socialist realism.
1960s: new tendencies, the influence of informel, its localized versions. The influence of neo-dada and pop on Czech art of the second half of the 60s. We will situate the "new figuration" tendencies as the result of many art developments and strong personalities.
1970s: mapping the new structuration of Czech art scene from official tendencies in its specific and grotesque aspects (The Army Studio of the Arts, art laureates and national artists) to the "unofficial scene" and straightforward underground.
We will trace the specificity of Czech performance and happenings.
The role of the Jazz Section will be described.
1980s: the course will focus on the lesser known aspects of the social and political context of the decades.
artists: the importance of the 12/15 group, the arrival of new generation born in 1950s, art of the non-declared but practicaly active art groups. We will look at the change of the situation in late 1980s, the arrival of the Stubborn group and the wider context of its activities.