Ateliér No. 1, January 10, 2008

in

Table of Contents [hide]

Třikrát Theodor Pištěk, page 1

– Jan Kříž: Theodor Pištěk Three Times (exhibition, Praha, Muzeum Kampa / Kampa Museum, Part I – 23. 10. – 5. 11. 2007; Part II – 9. 11. – 24. 11. 2007; Part III – 29. 11. 2007 – 20. 1. 2008)

The series of three exhibitions, curated by Jiří Machalický, presented the oeuvre of Theodor Pištěk (1932, see At. Nos 9/90, 10, 12/92, 21, 25/93, 8/96, 23/97, 3/98, 21/00, 2/04, 8/05) ranging from minimal abstractions, early narrative figurations, hyper-realistic works of the 1970s and the 1980s (Part I) and post-modern illusionistic labyrinths of the 1980s and the 1990s (Part II) to romantic combinations of historicist painting and object both gracefully utopian and tragically destructed in interpreting the technology on one hand as the hope of civilization and on the other hand as the memento mori on the background of the meditative nostalgia of classical painting. Pištěk, whose early works were represented by geometric drawings and objects composed of elements of car engines, started to paint systematically relatively late. He was inspired by paintings by his friends Bedřich Dlouhý and Jaroslav Vožniak, particularly their contributions to illusive realism of the 1960s. The influence of these two artists on various phases of Pištěk’s painting is evident. Pištěk’s output echoed impact of two international trends New Figuration, represented by his specific application of the method of painted assemblage, and Hyper-Realism. The sober painterly illusion, resulting from the well-thought-out juxtapositions of quotations from magazines, was the first culmination of his art. On the one hand, Pištěk, a former car racer, celebrated the technology. On the other hand, Pištěk’s works echoed his romantic sense of existential problems, resulting from the domestic social and political scene. Kříž thinks that we live in an inconsistent era, so that we interpret the tension between the two opposite poles of the painter’s mind as the ingenious witness of the time. The series of three exhibitions pointed out the marked character of Pištěk’s oeuvre the transformation of the original sources of inspiration into the individual, attractive personal stories and / or symbols of the era. An inseparable part of Pištěk’s career as an artist was his staring as a film artist; he collaborated with the major film makers (Miloš Forman). Kříž stresses Pištěk’s excellence in combining the romantic desire of man to unite with nature and his / her hope in the technology, enriched with the inspiration by the various types of historic landscape painting and the Baroque dramatics. The exhibition is accompanied by a lavish monograph (Theodor Pištěk. Edited by Jiří Šetlík. Texts by Jindřich Chalupecký, Jiří Šetlík, Miloš Macourek, Jan Kříž, Jiří Kotalík, Theodor Pištěk, Ivan Neumann, Stanislav Kolíbal. Galerie Pecka. Praha 2007. 388 pp., plates).

Kyberfeminismus mezi uměním a globální technokulturou, page 2

– Denisa Kera: Cyberfeminism between Art and Global Technoculture (theory / discussion / sources)

Due to the global technologies and the consequent questioning of the national and other traditional differences, the traditional type of feminism has been replaced by various post-feminist projects that stress pluralism of objectives and identities. The feminist project is no more understood as the utopian building of the perfect society; it is approached as an experiment that questions all social stereotypes in creating the preconditions of radical pluralism and otherness. Art and technologies play a major part in this process, being preconditions of the emergence of cyberfeminism. The term cyberfeminism emerged in 1992 in works by the theorist Sadie Plant and manifestos of the groups of female artists VNS Matrix (Josephine Starrs, Julianne Pierce, Francesca da Rimini, Virginia Barratt). In 1997, the first cyberfeminist alliance Old Boys Network was established. This alliance participated in many festivals, including Documenta X. Next year, the association subRosa, pointing out social activism, was established. In the late 1990s, the group activities gradually wore out, nevertheless individual theorists and artists have kept developing their activities (visit http://www.functionfeminism.com). The first cyberfeminist was Francis Bacon (1561 – 1626), the “founding father” of modern science and the civilization based on the technology, who methaporized about science in “feminist” terms like “birth”, “abortion” and “procreation”. Bacon understood the technology as a creative, fertile and female power, bringing new things and transforming the world. The emancipation of science and technology was the first step in the emancipation of women and, later on, cyborgs. The metaphor of the cyborg is cardinal regarding an important type of contemporary feminism. The cyborg is interpreted in three different contexts that characterize three types of cyberfeminism. The first is the context of manifesto (philosophy). The second context is pop culture (questions of body, identity and reproduction). The thirst context is art that explores cyborgs and hybrid organisms from the post-human point of view. Cyberfeminism Is a Myth. Irony and subversive distance have been characteristic of cyberfeminism from the very beginnings of this movement. The division of the original (divine, authentic) from the non-authentic (artificial) interpreted as the cause of all divisions is to be fought against through the apotheosis of the new technologies. Recently, all original and divine things have turned relative. The era of experiments, monsters and cyborgs has started. The relation between the woman and new technologies has turned cardinal, roofing the previous themes (social, cultural, linguistic, psychoanalytic etc.). Cyberfeminism does not explore the past. Its theme is the future. In a way, it contrasts to ecofeminism that is focused on searching for the “paradise lost”. Cyberfeminism and Manifestos. The identity of cyberfeminism results from manifestos. The manifesto, like cyberfeminism, is a hybrid that mixes politics with advertisement; it is a monster that combines the poetic enthusiasm with the analysis. Donna Haraway interprets the cyborg and other hybrids as symbols of the woman the unoriginal being, always defined in relation to the man. Cyberfeminists interpret women as “the virus of the global disorder”; the stereotypes of women can be manipulated and / or mutated like codes and genes. Developing the traditions of political and computer programming, the Australian poet MEZ Breeze invented the new syntax and expressions she used in her poems, called code/net.wurks. Cyberfeminism, Art and Technoculture. Alongside with manifestos and specific languages, cyberfeminism is mostly expressed through art projects that present new strategies women approach to their bodies, the Internet and the domains of the masculine dominance the new technologies, computer games and pornography. In contrast to cyberpunk fantasies, resulting in translating the body into codes, the cyberfeminists’ interest in the new technologies results in experimenting with the female body. The question, whether the new technologies bring the freedom or the new slavery for the female body, is the theme of the project SmartMom (visit http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/fwild). Kera finds the most sophisticated and advanced of cyberfeminists’ projects the modifications and / or (subversive) deconstructions of computer games, often resulting in experimental animations, visual orgies and / or “Avant-Garde” programming. A specific type represents a combination of the advanced technologies and the “traditional female roles”. The most radical of cyberfeminists’ artworks herald the future non-human society.

Muž a žena, page 3

– Martin Kolář: Man and Woman (conference, J. E. Purkyně University, Ústí nad Labem, 22. 11. 2007)

A conference about the manifold problematic of gender took place on 22 November 2007 in J. E. Purkyně University in Ústí nad Labem.

Krajiny Zorky Ságlové, page 4

– Veronika Zboranová: Zorka Ságlová’s Landscapes (exhibition, Louny, Galerie Benedikta Rejta / Benedikt Rejt Gallery, 28. 10. 2007 – 3. 2. 2008)

The Zorka Ságlová (1942 – 2003, see At. Nos 14/92, 10, 21, 24/90, 7, 25/94, 18, 21/95, 4/96, 11/97, 7, 16-17/98, 2, 4, 5/00, 3/02, 19, 25-26/03, 1/07) exhibition in Louny differed from the Ságlová retrospective, held at the National Gallery in Prague and the Moravian Gallery in Brno in 2006-07, in focusing on the philosophy on which the oeuvre of the prematurely died artist had been based. Ságlová endeavoured to get rid of any yoke through artmaking. Her works were deliberately characterized by the refined femininity and irony. The set of works on display, dominated by the portrait of Ságlová by Jan Merta, included the 1960s-designs for tapestries with the playful motifs of birds, the 1980s-geometric structure of 2209 rabbits, an assemblage of ropes, symbolizing the woman’s long hair (Cassandra, 2001), photographs taken in Fuerteventura, echoing the artist’s enchantment by the exotic “paradise”, photographs documenting her land art projects and actions of the 1960s and the 1970s. The exhibition, curated by Alica Štefančíková, Andrea Pozníčková and Veronika Zboranová, evidenced the thought-provoking attractiveness of Ságlová’s oeuvre for the contemporary viewer.

Hradčanoid, page 4

– Jan Zálešák: Hradčanoid (exhibition, Brno, Moravská galerie – Pražákův palác / Moravian Gallery – Pražák’s Palace, 29. 9. 2007 – 20. 1. 2008)

Recently, several artists have contributed by conceptual projects, reinterpreting critically the icons of minimal art. Matěj Smetana (1980, see At. Nos 22/03, 12/05, 14-15/06, 19/07) made the first version of Hradčanoid („Prague-Castleoid”) of wire in 2003. This work was based on the same principle as his previous series of Flags (2002): the application of the morphology of the Avant-Garde, deliberately free from symbolic and / or literary allusions, for coding the patriotic symbols and / or the national identity. The new version of Hradčanoid, made of polystyrene, is a “good abstract shape”; aesthetically autonomous, it is enriched with an allusion to the famous shape of the Prague Castle, the symbol of the Czech state. Smetana’s project is a playful combination of Concept and Object.

Transfer, page 4

– Martin Kolář: Transfer (exhibition, Ústí nad Labem, Galerie Emila Filly / Emil Filla Gallery, 25. 10. – 8. 12. 2007; Dresden, Motorenhalle, 10. 11. 2007 – 19. 1. 2008)

The above exhibition is a part of a long-term project mapping the visual arts in the post-Communist Central Europe. Particular exhibitions are curatorial projects, focused on particular regions in taking in consideration broad contexts. The exhibition Hot Destination – Marginal Destiny IV maps the art scenes in Ústí nad Labem, North Bohemia, and Dresden. The project is focused on the identity of the borderland metropolis based artist and his / her authentic story. The double-project is enriched with the dialogue between the two art academies from the two participating cities. The curators selected works representing the 1990s scene. The participants in the exhibition held in Ústí nad Labem were Stefanie Busch (G), Jiří Hladík (CZ), Dominik Hruza (A), Barbora Klímová (CZ), Martin Kuriš (CZ), Henrik Schrat (G), Tobias Stengel (G), Michaela Thelenová (CZ), Robert Vlasák (CZ), and Martina Wolf (G). The following artists contributed to the exhibition presented in Dresden: Janet Grau (G), Frank Hermann (G), Jiří Hladík (CZ), Dominik Hruza (A), Barbora Klímová (CZ), Martin Kuriš (CZ), Pavel Kopřiva (CZ), Michal Moravčík (SL), and Michaela Thelenová (CZ).

Michal Škoda: Insideoutside, page 4

– Alžběta Petřinová: Michal Škoda: Insideoutside (exhibition, Praha, Galerie AP Atelier / Gallery AP Atelier, 14. 9. 2007 – 31. 1. 2008)

Michal Škoda (1962, see At. Nos 6/92, 7/94, 14/97, 9/98, 12, 24/99, 13, 19/01, 5/03, 6/04, 21, 24/05, 18/06, 12/07) is a renowned artist and a curator at the České Budějovice House of Art. He is well-known of combining the principles of painting, sculpture and architecture through the minimal means. A selection of Škoda’s works (including the unique artist’s books), created during the past two years, is presented at the AP Atelier. The rational geometry, distinguished in soft colours, is typical of Škoda’s minimal spatial illusions. Symmetrization / asymmetrization is an important element of Škoda’s works. The exhibition title is derived from the large-scale work Insideoutside (2006), composed of twenty hanging objects. Škoda’s works, enriched with the intimate expression, differ from the rigorous Constructivism.

Věra Nováková Obrazy, plastiky, kresby, page 5

– Richard Drury: Věra Nováková Paintings, Sculptures, Drawings (exhibition, Praha, Galerie Navrátil / Navrátil Gallery, 10. 12. 2007 – 3. 2. 2008)

Věra Nováková (1928, see At. Nos 4/92, 19/94, 7/97, 9/98, 10/00, 10/02, 3/03, 18/06, 6, 24/07) is a being full of energies of her existence. It is echoed in her oeuvre, distinguished in the spiritual focus. She visualizes man as a heart-felt sign, a revelation able of the dramatic transformation in service of the symbolic message. The word and the letter are the cardinal elements of Nováková’s visualized meditations. The crucial motif in her works is the man-letter as the symbolic focus that embodies the human existence. The freedom of thinking is cardinal of Nováková’s life. Thanks to it, Nováková’s oeuvre is distinguished in authenticity and originality.

Kotelna Singerovi sluší, page 5

– Marcela Chmelařová: The Boiler-Room Gallery Becomes Singer (exhibition, Říčany, Galerie Kotelna Říčany / “Boiler-Room” Gallery Říčany, 14. 11. 2007 – 19. 1. 2008)

The Kotelna (“Boiler-Room”) Gallery in Říčany was opened by the Michal Singer (1959, see At. Nos 15-16/93, 2/96, 24/98, 21/99, 25-26/02, 7/03) exhibition. Singer’s paintings, full of shaman-like mysterious energies, executed in palette-knifed brushwork or finger-painting, are brilliantly presented at the industrial space of the Kotelna Gallery. From the 1990s onwards, Singer was the art director of the weekly journals Respekt and Revolver Revue. Since 1993, he has contributed to the field of fine arts. The painting and the written word are the two inseparable parts of his pictures. Two types of Singer’s work are on display in Říčany – the first is energic, gestic and colourfully loud type of paintng, the other type is almost meditatively still, distinguished in the refined pointillist tones. The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue in form of a CD that maps Singer’s output of the past two years.

Martin Kolář – Listy, page 5

– Jiří Valoch: Martin Kolář – Leaves (exhibition, Brno, Brněnské kulturní centrum – Galerie Kabinet / Brno, Centre of Culture – Cabinet Gallery, 5. 12. 2007 – 4. 1. 2008)

Martin Kolář (1969, see At. Nos 8/95, 25-26/01, 9/06, 6, 8, 9/07) has explored the new paths of radical abstraction in form of the pure monochrome, and the transformation processes resulting from the application of “wrong” techniques (tempera on oil painting). A selection from two series of Kolář’s works large-scale washed gouaches entitled Swelling (2001 – 2006), and oil paintings on hand-made paper, entitled Embellishments of the Gold (2007), repetitive structures that evoke the golden monochromes was presented at the Kabinet Gallery. The exhibition title Leaves was inspired by the fact that works on display were hanging in space, being moved in the air “like tree-leaves”.

Roman Franta si brouká, page 5

– David Majer: Roman Franta’s Beetling (exhibition, Ostrava, Galerie Beseda / Beseda Gallery, 28. 11. 2007 – 18. 1. 2008)

The motif of the bug (beetle) in paintings by Roman Franta (1962, see At. Nos 5, 13/94, 6, 18/95, 1, 22/96, 4, 23/97, 1, 8/98, 14-15/99, 11, 20/00, 4, 16-17/01, 3, 16-17/02, 25-26/03, 1, 10, 24/05, 9, 19/07) is the cardinal element in expressing the exaggeration of the shape and / or the colour; it is a conceptual sign, motivated by the visual suggestion, fiction, irony and politico-social satire. Franta’s paintings, composed of the “bug-atoms”, evidence that the artist has visualized the idea and reality both in Conceptual and classical forms. The Franta exhibition, presenting a selection of his recent works, is dominated by portraits of two Czech presidents Václav Havel and Václav Klaus.

Nejkrásnější koberce Orientu, page 6

– Zdenka Klimtová: The Most Beautiful Carpets of the Orient (exhibition, Brno, Muzeum města Brna – Špilberk / Museum of City Brno – Špilberk Castle, 3. 10. 2007 – 20. 1. 2008)

The above exhibition presents a splendid selection of historical oriental carpets from Czech and Moravian collections, both public and private. It is the most extensive exhibition dedicated to the oriental carpet held in the Czech Republic. The set of items on display ranges from the rare carpet made in Us,aku, Turkey, in the second half of the 16th century to carpets made in the early 20th century. The set of exhibits includes carpets from Asia Minor, Central Asia and Caucasia. The highlight of the exhibition is a set of Persian carpets, two of which were made in the 17th century.

Nové prostředky – stejné principy, page 6

– Jiří Machalický: New Means – Unvaried Principles (exhibition, Hradec Králové, Galerie Moderního umění / Gallery of Modern Art, 15. 11. 2007 – 13. 1. 2008)

The concept of the Jaroslava Severová (1942, see At. Nos 23/89, 18/90, 22/91, 5, 16, 21/92, 15-16/93, 1, 2, 12/94, 24/95, 14, 22/96, 16-17, 21/98, 16-17/99, 2/00, 1, 11/02, 24/03, 5/04, 1, 6, 8, 19/05, 6/06, 1/07) exhibition is based on a felicitous combination of series of digital prints and minimal objects with neon light, created from the 1990s to the present. Severová’s greatest contributions resulted from searching for the new means of expression and technologies in examining several themes. In the mid-1960s, Severová, a representative of New Figuration, reduced the human figure into the intelligible sign. The further reduction resulted in compositions of basic geometric figures, harmonizing the relation between the order and the fortuity. Her works echo the many-layered character of the life and its permanent motion. She understands the world as a dynamic systems of competing energies. She works with the contrasts between the geometric lines and organic curves and / or different materials. Recently, Severová’s work, characterized by experimenting with new methods and media, has been enriched with computer programming.

Sbírky on-line v ČMVU aneb Co nevisí na netu, neexistuje..., page 6

– Alena Krkošková: The On-Line Collections of the Czech Museum of Fine Arts or What Is Not On the Internet, It Does Not Exists...

The collections of the Czech Museum of Fine Arts are presented on-line in a complex, visitor-friendly way (authors, themes, styles, alphabetical order...) visit www.cmvu.cz. The major part of the museum’s collections is 20th century art. The digitization of the museum’s collections a work of a team of curators at the Czech Museum of Fine Arts (Alena Potůčková, Richard Drury, Lenka Vobrubová, Helena Vodenková, Olaf Hanel and Jan Kříž) is a successful project. It is especially praiseworthy regarding the fact that no permanent exhibition has been opened at the Czech Museum of Fine Arts for a period of thirty years.

Jacob Holdt: USA 1970 – 1975, page 7

– Irena Aimová: Jacob Holdt: USA 1970 – 1975 (exhibition, Praha, Langhans Gallery, 21. 11. 2007 – 20. 1. 2008)

A selected set from the famous series of photographs American Pictures, taken by the Danish photographer Jacob Holdt (1947) during his vagabonding through the USA in the early 1970s, is on display at the Langhans Gallery. Holdt’s series gives an impressive picture of America, particularly its underclass. Despite that Holdt is a self-taught photographer, his images are distinguished in the aesthetic qualities, particularly regarding the composition and the work with the light. Holdt does not consider himself an artist; he points out his photographs are to serve in fighting against racial discrimination, poverty, oppression and injustice.

Fotograf lyrických struktur, page 7

– Petr Ozogán: A Photographer of Lyrical Structures (exhibition, Liberec, Malá výstavní síň / Small Exhibition Hall, 5. 12. 2007 – 12. 1. 2008)

The Jan Pikous (1929) retrospective is held in Liberec. Pikous was a founding member of the Liberec based Studio of Art Photography (1962 – 1968). His early works, influenced by the Informel and Structural Art, were characterized by a tendency towards abstraction, particularly in exploring the textures and light. From the mid-1970s onwards, he contributed mostly by staged still-lifes. From the 1980s onwards, he was taking colour photographs in reconsidering his previous experiments in black and white photography. Pikous has also contributed to the field of literature. His images, full of symbols, are distinguished in a specific tension. Recently, he has contributed by collages made of his early negatives. Pikous’ selected images and texts were published in a book entitled Pozvánka k přemítání / An Invitation to Meditation.

Evokace Čestmíra Krátkého látá mapu informelu, page 7

– Josef Moucha: An Evocation of Čestmír Krátký Darns the Map of the Informel (book review, Čestmír Krátký: Tvorba jako pokus o existenci. / Čestmír Krátký: Art as an Attempt at Existence. Edited by Zdenek Primus. Lay Out by Vladimír Vimr. KANT, Praha 2007. 201 pp., 121 illustrations)

The second monograph of Čestmír Krátký (1932) includes photographs from 1958 to 1967. Images are listed in chronological order, so that the photographer’s one-decade-way from figuration to abstraction is evident. The interesting book will be hardly reprinted due to the editor’s many omissions. Moucha points out Krátký’s art was period conditioned. He suggests Surrealist and / or Existential interpretation of Krátký’s works, giving an example of Krátký’s self-portrait, taken from the shabby concrete structure in which the photographer saw an analogue to the X-ray photograph of a fracture of his skull.

Kdo je viník? page 8

– Olga Wewerka: Who Is Guilty? (exhibition, Berlin, Haus am Waldsee, 2. 11. 207 – 13. 1. 2008)

The German painter Norbert Bisky (1970, see At. Nos 20/03, 18/06) is a renowned artist. He spent his child- and younghood in the East Germany. From 1994 to 1999, he was a pupil of Georg Baselitz at the Hochschule für Künste. His early paintings, pretty-pretty at first sight, were characterized by parody, sarcasm and provocation. His new inclination towards harshness was evident in paintings, presented at the International Bienale of Present Art – Second View in 2005 (see At. Nos 14-15/05). The Bisky exhibition under review includes paintings created during the past two years. The painter’s world has darkened – sex and violence, the latent themes in his previous works, have turned dominant in his newest large-scale canvases; the pink, baby blue and yellow colours have been replaced by the deep blue. Wewerka compares Bisky’s recent paintings to a whirlwind or an apocalypse. Bisky declares that his paintings are not a reaction to the actual political situation. He says there is something religious in his works.

Zrkadlo je fascinujúci fenomén a krása téma pre umenie aj pre výstavu, page 8

– Eva Kapsová: Mirror Is a Fascinating Phenomenon and Beauty Is a Theme Good for Art and an Exhibition (exhibition, Nitra, Nitranská galéria / Nitra Gallery, 26. 10. – 31. 12.)

The young Slovak curator Barbora Geržová explored several aspects of the fascinating phenomenon of mirror / mirroring in her project entitled Mirror as an Instrument of Illusion. She composed the exhibition of works by Czech and Slovak artists (Milan Bočkay, Lenka Cisárová, Ladislav Čarný, Richard Fajnor, Jana Farmanová, Stano Filko, Daniel Fischer, Bohdan Hostiňák, Miro Hric, the group of artists Kamera Skura, Michal Kern, Matej Krén, Pavel Kopřiva, Vladimír Kordoš, Otis Laubert, Dita Pepe, Veronika Rónaiová, Dorota Sadovská, Rudolf Sikora, Uľjana Zmetáková, Jana Želibská, Ivona Žirková). The exhibition is a first part of the project focused on the various ways to evoke the illusion, applied in the 20th century art (Hyper-Realism, trompe l’oeil, simulacrum, Op Art, shadow-play and mirroring).

Festival Enter 3, page 12

– Eduard Piňos: Festival Enter 3 (3rd International Festival Art / Science / New Technologies, Praha, 5. 11. – 11. 11. 2007)

Organized by the CIANT The International Centre for Art and New Technologies, the focal theme of the Festival Enter 3 (see At. Nos 14-15/05) was the synergy of art and science. The festival included the Mutamorphosis conference and a mixture of art exhibitions, screenings and performances. Modern Pilgrims. The exhibition entitled I, Resident, held at the French Institute, presented works by young artists, participants in the European-wide residencies organized within the project Pepinières europénnes pour jeune artistes. The heterogeneous set of works on display ranged from the abstract sculpture by Štěpán Kleník, representing the Internet through millions of poppy-seeds, to the Seven-League Boots by the Finnish artist Laura Beloff, intended for “walking in the Internet”. The Gothic Cellar Turned into an Art Lab. The most complex (and most attractive) of the exhibitions, organized within the Festival Enter 3, was the project entitled Unsafe Distance that was held at the gothic cellar of the Stone Bell House. A set of about thirty fascinating works by international and Czech artists was presented there; some of displayed works, created through the application of advanced technologies, were intelligible to the well-informed visitor who was able to appreciate not only the visual side of the exhibit but also its scientific background. Abstraction in Art and Science Is the Same. Specific projects exhibitions WEB 2.0 Generation and Artists in Labs were held at the new exhibition hall of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. The first project, focused on connecting innovations, business and art, informed about various web project only. The latter, curated by Denisa Kera, presented Conceptual works by five young Czech artists, resulting from their residencies at science labs. The Extreme Body as a Space for Expression. The Mutamorphosis conference, subtitled Challenging Art and Science, included contributions exploring themes of the limits of the organic life, extreme bodies in the extreme space, nano-art etc. The most attractive contribution to the conference was Stelarc’s project Extra Ear. Next Time with Robots. The theme of the Festival Enter 4, scheduled for 2009, is cybernetics.

Spiritualita, page 2

– Martin Reissner: Spirituality (book review, Spiritualita. Fenomén spirituality z pohledu filozofie, religionistiky, teologie, literatury, teorie a dějin umění, pedagogiky, sociologie, antropologie, psychologie a výtvarných umělců / Spirituality. Phenomenon of Spirituality from the point of View of Philosophy, Religious Studies, Theology, Literature, Theory and History of Art, Pedagogy, Sociology, Anthropology, Psychology and Fine Artists. Edited by Hana Babyrádová, Jiří Havlíček. Masarykova univerzita, Brno 2006, 542 pp., illustrations)

The reviewed book investigates the phenomenon of spirituality an its role in today society from the point of view of diverse human sciences and active artists.

Victor Vasarely ze sbírek Janus Pannonius Múzea v Pécsi, page 16

– Jiří Valoch: Victor Vasarely from the Collections of Janus Pannonius Museum in Pécs (exhibition, Olomouc, Muzeum umění / Museum of Art, 15. 11. 2007 – 27. 1. 2008)

The oeuvre of Victor Vasarely (1906 – 1997, see At. Nos 6/91, 3/04) is one of the corner-stones of the post-war European visual culture. Vasarely, a pioneer in silk-screen printing and a propagator of the multiple is rightly regarded as the father of Op Art. Valoch points out that Op Art was the first of the international movements that opposed the dominant Informel. The uniqueness of the Olomouc exhibition results from the emphasis laid on Vasarely’s cardinal contribution to forming the new aesthetics. The exhibition represents Vasarely’s oeuvre from the early works of the late 1920s to his late output. The cardinal part of the set of works on display is a collection of selected silk-screen prints, ranging from the succinct expression of “the motion in the mind”, evoked through the composition of geometric elements, to complex “Conceptual” works, including the fascinating spatial illusions. The exhibition, curated by József Sárkány (Janus Pannonius Museum in Pécs) and co-curated by Gina Renotière, is a major event. The set of exhibits includes tapestries made after Vasarely’s designs. Valoch thinks that the “soft” character of the tapestry does not correspond to the clearly delineated lines and impersonal colour fields, typical of Vasarely’s works. Valoch points out that Vasarely enriched visual culture with the virtual motion (Op Art). He finds particularly important Vasarely’s innovatory variable (open-ended) structures, the viewer was to compose of the elements prepared by the artist.

Translated by Magda Němcová