PRAGUE FANTASTIC REALISM
JAN JEDLIČKA, VLADIVOJ KOTYZA AND MIKULÁŠ RACHLÍK
originally in Prague City Gallery, Colloredo-Mansfeld palace

At home, Jan Jedlička, Vladivoj Kotyza a Mikuláš Rachlík, three friends who grew up in bourgeois families, refer to Josef Stalin as Vishittyonovich, while, instead of the Schwarzenbergs, President Novotný resides in Castle Orlík and plays Mariáš. We find ourselves in the 1960s gazing upon an unknown and remarkable slice of the work of three young graphic artists, that is, Prague fantastic realism. Even though it might be considered a mere episode in Czech art history, it accurately, and unfortunately, reflects a significantly longer period of our history, which often produced such absurd situations that a real artist could not manage it within the bounds of Socialist Realism.
 
While viewing the exhibition, you will have the opportunity to listen to audio commentary by Marie Rakušanová, Jan Jedlička and Vladivoj Kotyza. And texts by Vojtěch Lahoda, Marie Rakušanová and Jitka Hlaváčková will provide you with historical, art historical, and philosophical insight. Jedlička, Kotyza and Rachlík admired the old masters, paged through the journal Hara-Kiri or strolled through ruins and waste dumps as if seeking out the remnants of old times. Of course, as Marie Rakušanová writes, “In their version, nostalgia is not a sentimental attachment to the past; it is not a manifestation of the ‘disease of the imagination,’ but rather of imaginative health. (…) It shifts the object of nostalgia not only along the temporal axis between past, present and future, but also deflects it in the direction of alternative realities and fictional times.” You will find the exhibition here.