Czechoslovakian Realism #3
The troubled path of an art that reflected on the regime society in Czechoslovakia from 1940s to 1980s
Portrait of Božena Živná, miner from Kladno (1950) by Vincenc ŽivnýEleutheria Foundation
The celebration of the workaholics
The most enterprising workers were rewarded. This is the case of the portrait made by Vincenc Živný in honor of the miner Božena Živná, a worker in the great coalfield of Kladno.
The joyful representation of a peasant woman, linked to Soviet realism, is Woman by Josef Brož (1904-1980). By the same artist he is a smelter closed in his overalls and with a helmet on his head illuminated from the right by the fire of the casting. They are works inspired by the Stalinist principle "national in form and socialist in content". So, here are people happy to contribute to the construction of a new society where workers triumph.
Three miners (1960) by Martin SladkýEleutheria Foundation
The portraits of Socialist Realism have different styles. Jan Jan Čumpelík's (1895-1965) portrait of the soldier with a rifle in his hand presents a synthetic realism, like the painting by the same author, perhaps portraying an army officer, has a more academic tone.
In the works of Realism, styles that refer to other artistic traditions are often rediscovered. An example are the paintings of Otakar Čemus (1928), where there is a certain link with nineteenth-century French painting.
Roadmen (1967) by Otakar ČemusEleutheria Foundation
Alena Čermáková (1926-2009) has an initial artistic phase of an academic type, as can be seen in the painting with two women sitting on the wheat field. Later, in the 60s, she completely changed her style.
Carpet sellers in Urgut (1967) by Alena ČermákováEleutheria Foundation
Čermáková changes the shades of colors, as if she discoveres the palettes of the École de Paris among the Fauves and the German Expressionists.
Sentinel at the border (1960) by Jaromir SchořEleutheria Foundation
Another important artist is Jaromír Schoř (1912-1992) who in the 1950s painted according to a model based on the Soviet painting of realism. If one wants to understand the novelty of his pictorial writing, one must see the important woodcuts related to German Expressionism.
Working, since 1953, for the Artistic Studio of the Army, Schoř proposes always returning themes, always composed with great sensitivity, but with strong epic tension. In his paintings mainly soldiers and partisans or war scenarios are portrayed. His technique was the following: the artist first created sketches and, once these were finished, he moved on to paint them, always with the possibility changes in the composition.
Famiglia Zmeškal (1986) by Vladimir SuchýEleutheria Foundation
This story to tell how art, even in dark times, testifies that beyond the socio-political borders there is a freedom that is called fantasy and which, today, is testimony to history, memory of what happened, hope that it will not happen again.
Texts by Dr. Flavio R.G. Mela (Coordinator of Eleutheria Foundation)
Photos by Ivan Bárta, Alessandro Bianchi, Jan Brunclík
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