Exhibition Colors of Dissent: Between Activism, the Underground, and Exile—The Czech Art Scene and Charter 77 commemorates visual artists who, during the Normalization period, decided to defend freedom of creative expression and fundamental civil rights, and who expressed their civic stance by signing the Charter 77 declaration. The exhibition in Litoměřice features nearly thirty artists (out of a total of more than forty) who signed this landmark document between 1977 and 1988.

The exhibition was organized in connection with the 50th anniversary of the trial of musicians from the alternative scene, known primarily as the trial of The Plastic People of the Universe. The sentencing of four leading figures of the Czech underground (Ivan Martin Jirous, Pavel Zajíček, Vratislav Brabenec, and Svatopluk Karásek) to prison terms without parole was one of the catalysts for uniting various currents of civic resistance against the communist regime and also led to the drafting of the Charter 77 declaration, published on January 1, 1977.

The exhibition traces the Czech art scene from the cultural thaw of the late 1950s and early 1960s through the events of 1968 and the period of normalization to action art and the underground scene. Most forms of artistic expression are represented, including documentation of events and happenings (Milan Knížák, Zorka Ságlová, Jan Steklík). From works by members of creative groups from the 1950s and 1960s (Jan Koblasa, Jaroslav Vožniak, Antonín Tomalík, Aleš Lamr) to the works of members of the Křižovnická School of Pure Humor Without Jokes, many of whom later became the first signatories of Charter 77.

It also highlights the losses suffered by the Czech art scene due to the wave of emigration following 1968 (Antonín Málek, Jiří Valenta, Karel Zlín), and the works of 28 signatories of Charter 77 from the 1970s and 1980s (alongside the best-known—Jiří Kolář, Ota Slavík, and Karel Trinkewitz—also Dana Puchnarová, Olga Karlíková, Olaf Hanel, Josef Císařovský, David Němec, Juliana Jirousová (Stritzková), Roman Trabura, Eduard Ovčáček, Tomáš Haleš, Jaroslav Hutka, Petr Kouba, Jan Šafránek, and many others). In conclusion, the exhibition highlights works by artists who did not sign the document but who nevertheless often faced censorship, exhibition bans, and other forms of persecution—often for trivial reasons.

Curator: Dana Veselská