The work of Rudolf Němec (1936-2015) transcends the boundaries of media and formal boxes. In addition to being one of the most prominent painters of the New Figuration, he was an actor in happenings and performances and the author of short films. He also worked on literary works and poetry. All of these activities were carried out in close connection with other artists associated with the Křižovnické škola čistého humoru bez joke, which was an important platform for underground art at the turn of the 1960s and 1970s. Characteristically for a German, he was officially led in its poetry section.

The beginnings of his painting were influenced by his encounter with the works of Yves Klein and Antonio Recalcati at the Vienna exhibition Pop etc. (1964, Museum des XX. Jahrhunderts). He subsequently brought the action of using the imprint of the human body to create a work to the Czech environment. The originally free performative works here took on a darker form, influenced by the totalitarian culture of fear and the other face hidden behind walls. Initially, the German imprinted himself and the models directly into the email layer. The immediate trace of the body was naturalistic and evoked a vibrant life. From the physical imprint of a specific person, he soon moved on to a decal of plastic mannequins in which he used wires to model nodal points and energy pathways within the body. He also exhibited these Suits for the Medium as full-fledged objects in their own right.

In parallel with the prints, the German also began to use the technique of spraying over stencils. He carved the outlines of the shadows out of cardboard. He was even more fascinated by the objects we surround ourselves with at home - a kind of grids and grids whose rhythm both soothes and irritates us. The shadows of bathroom mats, sinks and washbasins, industrial grilles and doormats, etc., were thus on the canvases.

In the 1970s he and his friends carried out several events in the landscape: Penetration, Dwelling, Peeking, etc. At the center of these actions was the human being, with all its possibilities and limits. To express vulnerability and fragility, he used foils separating the actors from their surroundings. An artificial cocoon separated them from the order of nature, making them untouchable. They thus found themselves outside the order of time.

The exhibition space Behind the Wall, where Rudolf Němec's exhibition is on display, is part of the permanent exhibition Czech Art of the 20th Century and its Boxes. It is dedicated to artists who, between 1948 and 1989, worked outside the official structures of cultural politics, in the underground or grey zone overlooked by institutions. Often these are experimental works, action art, happenings and other immaterial or temporary installations. These works created and presented "behind the walls" of studios, apartments or cottages are, from today's perspective, among the richest documents of the art of that time.

curator: Petra Příkazská