Czech painting features some outstanding colourist works from the past (Theodorik, Brandl, Navrátil, Purkyně).
Colourism appears to be something that fi nds strong reverberations in the Czech environment, and left its mark on the art of the 20th century. The exhibition will concentrate upon the rich tradition of colourism, as well as its echoes in the work of individual artists from modernism to the present. The show is not conceived as didactic; rather, it should evoke these affi nities and provide viewers with the joy of discovering surprising connections that have not previously been acknowledged. The exhibition will present prominent colourists in Czech painting, from the last century to the present. A colourist is an artist who primarily expresses his or her view of the world through colour tones, transitions from one tone to another and their contrasts; if we compare the work of, for example, Josef Šíma and Zdeněk Sýkora, we realise what the passion for colour can entail. A colourist possesses a unique ability to combine colours and convey through them what cannot be conveyed through, say, drawing. A closer inspection reveals strong affi nities in colour schemes in the work of Jan Preisler, Josef Šíma, Václav Boštík and Jan Merta. This affi nity is not just in the form; it also testifi es to a certain joint content in the work of these artists, as well as to their conscious interconnections. Their works in which colour schemes, often as lyrical and subtle as pastels, result in original statements make up one of the most distinct and important traditions in Czech painting. Further traditions in the approach to colour will be demonstrated by the work of František Kupka, Emil Filla, Milan Grygar, Jiří Sopko and Antonín Slavíček, KW, Josef Čapek and others.
