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The exhibition is dedicated to one of the finest Czech inter-war painters, Milada Marešová (1901-1987), almost forgotten by Czech art history, mapping out the artist's paintings, drawings and illustrations with an emphasis on her work in those inter-war years. It will include projections of an original home movie, a large set of hand-painted glass and foil slides made by Marešová at the beginning of the 1920's, her correspondence, photographs and documents. Marešová was one of the first women to take advantage of the opening door to academic art education after 1918. At first she studied at the School of Decorative Arts, after which she continued under Vojtěch Hynais at the Prague Academy and in 1923 she was apprenticed to František Kupka in Paris. Her first solo exhibition took place as early as 1925 at the Topičův salon in Prague and five years later she exhibited in the prestigious Aventinská mansarda gallery. In the 1920's and 1930's she illustrated a number of books, including rare books, and contributed as an illustrator to the Prager Presse, České slovo, Lidové noviny, Pestrý týden and Ženský svět journals. In 1940, she was arrested by the Gestapo for her illegal work for V boj, a magazine edited by Vojtěch Preissig, and was sentenced to twelve years in a top security prison and ten years of "official disgrace". During her stay in the women's penitentiary in Waldheim she made many drawings which will close the main part of the exhibition. After WWII, Marešová continued illustrating children's books and returned to painting only at the beginning of the 1960's. A selection of the artist's post-war work will create the epilogue to the exhibition.
