Rudolf Karasek (1895–1986) is considered one of the German-speaking visual artists from Bohemia. He was born in Paseky near Jablonec nad Nisou (Bad Schlag) in an area that, until the expulsion following May 1945, was inhabited predominantly by a German-speaking population. Over the course of three years (1913–1916) at the Prague Academy, he studied in the studios of Josef Laukota, Vlaho Bukovac, and Franz Thiele. He did not complete his studies, as he was drafted into the Austro-Hungarian Army, from which he returned severely wounded. He regularly exhibited his work at shows organized by the Jablonec branch of the Metznerbund art association. He came to Cheb as a member of the jury tasked with evaluating the competition for the decoration of the Cheb Memorial Hall—a monument to soldiers who fell in World War I—in the Church of St. Clare. Karas’s visit to Cheb on August 2 and 3, 1926, was followed by another one in late January 1928, the purpose of which remains unknown today. Both trips were documented in more than a dozen drawings and prints, in which he captured several corners of the city center. In addition, he created one oil painting, which is now missing. After the expulsion—in which he, like other residents identified as Germans, was included following May 1945—he painted a version of this scene, now housed at the Kunstforum Ostdeutsche Galerie in Regensburg. Differences in content are evident in the details of the windows, the smoking chimneys, and the flowers in the foreground. A certain detachment and a loss of inner tension can also be observed from a formal perspective.

Curator: Anna Habánová