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B as Brandl, Brno and Bludný les (the Wandering Forest)
As part of our professional education, we have the opportunity to visit exhibitions of other cultural institutions. During the renovation of our gallery, my colleagues Jana Jarošová and curator Jana Bojanovská and I try to use our working hours to visit exhibitions that interest us or that appeal to us in some way. We have created a joint timetable, which we gradually adjust and supplement depending on when individual exhibitions start and end, but also according to our other work. Last year, we had approximately one trip to see art for each month. There is general agreement in the JJP team, so it is easy to reach an agreement, which also has a positive effect on the atmosphere spent on these trips.
Very soon, Jana (J) came up with the idea of making our own TOP! ranking of exhibitions at the end of the year that appealed to each of us the most and writing an article about it on the blog. I am not a trained art historian or art critic, so my perspective will only be on laical and mainly emotional (and physical – explanation below) level.
When I realized at the end of the year that I had to write a text, I realized that I wouldn't even remember all the exhibitions I had seen. I started searching in my memory... And my mobile phone, where I save photos of some of the works from the exhibitions... But I stopped enjoying the search after a while. I decided that I wouldn't write about which exhibition was the best for me and which I would give first place to, but I would write about those that remained in my memory and must have interested or appealed to me in some way. And by complete coincidence, they have a common denominator: the letter B.
In January, we visited the "exhibition of the year" organized by the National Gallery in Prague at The Waldstein Riding School, entitled Peter Brandl: The Story of a Bohemian. Honestly, the Baroque period is not one of my favorites, but the name of Petr Brandl and the opportunity to see his work in one place could not be ignored. Moreover, the exhibition was talked about everywhere! I must admit that more than the paintings themselves, I was completely thrilled by the audio guide, which introduced visitors to both the personality of the painter and his work, as well as the time in which he lived. I was also intrigued by the ingenious installation of the works on glass panels, which visually lightened the exhibition space with its many large paintings, darkened colors, and the theme itself. And I was touched by the video that dealt with the restoration of one of Brandl's canvases. Unfortunately, I also remember the hour-long queue in the cold at the entrance to the Waldstein Riding School! We froze quite a bit.
In November, when it was no longer the warmest, we went to the Brno House of Arts, where there were two exhibitions that we wanted to see. The first, called Conditio Humana, presented Marius Kotrba's lifelong painting and sculpture work. I realized how distinctive and individual an artist he was, even though he was based on relatively traditional motifs, and how his work gradually became an inseparable part of public space. I was thrilled with the exhibition, its concept and installation. I had the opportunity to see it again during the Christmas holidays and I didn't mind at all! The second exhibition at the House of Arts was The Darkness We Talk From by artist Maud Kotasová. I like Maud's work for her artistic technique – embroidery in various non-traditional materials, and also the topics she deals with. You can feel a feminine fragility that blends with her strength and robustness and incredible manual skill at the same time.
I visited the exhibition entitled Bludný les (Wandering Fores), by the Japanese artist living in Prague, Sota Sakuma, at Bold Gallery without my colleagues, when I was in Prague for an educational seminar in September. The fairy-tale dreamlike stories, in which subtlety, playfulness and precise work are mixed, evoking the works of J. Trnka, F. Skála, H. Bosch together, were, in a word, breathtaking! For me personally, Sota Sakuma is the discovery of the year.
While compiling my top exhibitions, I remembered another memory. And that of the New Realisms in The Municipal Library of Prague, which were absolutely revealing and instructive for me in many ways. But I am cold all the time and this exhibition will remain associated with the unreal cold that I felt there. Fortunately, we visited it in the hot summer! Unfortunately, I left the exhibition early to warm up on the hot benches of Mariánský Square.
It is clear that the evaluation of exhibitions is significantly influenced by the mundane needs of my body, specifically its temperature, which is why I am extremely glad that I am not an art critic.
P.S.: I also really liked the exhibition dedicated to Jan Zrzavý's work, If I Were Beautiful Like Dionysos, in the 8smička gallery, as well as the exhibition of Eva Bystrianská's photographs in the same institution. And I would gradually remember others, but I think it's just the right time to close my TOP! selection. :-)
Pavlína Pitrová
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In 2024, I had the opportunity to personally visit quite a large number of exhibition projects. I was probably lucky, because I can't say that I saw anything that I personally didn't like at all, but of course there were projects that I found more interesting than others. :-)
I thought for a long time about how to approach my personal assessment of these exhibitions. There were various options – top ten, top five, ranking of them all… but since I saw a lot of these exhibitions last year compared to previous years, I decided to pick only those projects that I still think about, even several months after visiting them. Exhibition projects that left a really big impression on me. And it turned out that there were two such exhibitions:
Marius Kotrba at the Brno House of Arts and Karel Malich at the Gočár Gallery.
First of all, I must emphasize that I am not a curator, I work in a completely different position at the gallery, I have no education in the field, I have not studied art history. So I am a layman, and I get to know artists and art gradually, usually often within the framework of my work duties.
That way I got to know Karel Malich better. I was working on a text for social media related to his artwork I Saw This, which is in the collections of our gallery. Malich's work completely enchanted me. And so it was a really nice surprise when I found out that Gočár gallery would be presenting his work in more detail at the end of the year. Coincidentally, shortly after the opening of the exhibition, my colleagues and I attended the assembly of the Council of Galleries, which took place in Gočár gallery, so I had the opportunity to see this exhibition project. And while at the beginning of my journey through Malich's work I fell in love with his graphic work from the OGV collections, here I was completely bewitched by his wall objects and wire sculptures – simple, almost mundane at first glance, but nevertheless very impressive and evoking strong emotions.
The second exhibition project that left a deep impression on me is dedicated to the versatile artist Marius Kotrba. Before visiting the Conditio humana exhibition at the Brno House of Arts, Marius Kotrba was rather unknown to me. But it was all the more a discovery! I really enjoy his stocky figures, whether on canvas or in the form of sculptures, which seem a bit comical, often accompanied by a relatively funny, literal title (“Carrying Men”, “Men to Eat” or, my favorite, “Indigestible Woman”). In this exhibition, I was also interested not only in the author’s work itself, but also in its overall installation, for which I applaud the staff of the Brno House of Arts.
Jana Jarošová
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As mentioned above, last year, as part of our "expanding our cultural horizons", my colleagues Jana and Pavlína and I visited several Czech galleries and therefore quite a few exhibition projects, which of course led us to start comparing and evaluating them, whether we like it or not. So why not share our observations, both among ourselves and with you via our gallery blog, where we previously wrote about some of last year's exhibitions immediately after viewing them.
Since my colleagues were faster and had their texts ready by the beginning of January, I finally had to make myself think about how to approach this intention of ours. First, I decided not to read their texts in advance so as not to be influenced by their order. But I realized that I probably knew their favorites, because we always talked enthusiastically about our feelings when we returned from these art trips. In the end, I read both texts and I think I did the right thing, because this way I will save you from repeating what has already been said. Pavlína wrote a beautiful and concise introduction about how it all came about, so I will go straight to my individual exhibition favorites. The colleagues emphasized that they are not art history majors, which I am, but I would now like to share my personal observations, feelings and memories.
Since my youth, I have gravitated towards classical art, and this did not change during my studies at high school and university. I love antiquity, the Italian Renaissance, Gothic and Baroque architecture, French Impressionism, and Czech landscape painting, so it will probably not surprise anyone who knows me that I clearly rank Petr Brandl in the National Gallery in Prague in the first place.
We only got to the exhibition at the end, which unfortunately meant we had to wait in an endless line of art-hungry visitors, and we barely managed to avoid freezing our toes and fingers; we were perhaps only warmed by the sight of the unforgettable beauty of the ultimate Baroque art.
I told myself beforehand that I wouldn't be influenced by all those billboards in the streets, nor by advertisements in the media and on social networks, I was afraid that the big bubble would burst soon, as it sometimes happens. But I have to apologize to my colleagues from NG... In addition to the fact that they really collected the best works of Brandl, including monumental altarpieces, the unconventional installation on glass panels was also impressive. It gave the impression that the paintings were levitating in space. The effective atmosphere was also completed by the lighting and the possibility of watching an animated film about the painter's life or using the excellent and unconventional audio guide, which we took advantage of and definitely did not regret. Petr Brandl himself spoke to us through headphones, who, through the voice of actor Ondřej Bauer, often humorously told us his life story, which was brilliantly dramatized by the playwright René Levinský. We were able to immerse ourselves in the colorful world of this bohemian artist and get to know not only his work, but also his vibrant and uninhibited life. Of course, there were also clear and detailed descriptions of the individual paintings, including, for example, various interesting facts and the circumstances under which the works were created, or a documentary about the restoration of Brandl's largest canvas. In short, a real experience...
Another interesting exhibition that I visited twice – which speaks for itself – was a large retrospective exhibition of Marius Kotrba in the Brno House of Arts. I was also very much looking forward to the exhibition, because the work of this sculptor made an unforgettable impression on me eleven years ago, when Kotrba's exhibition was held here at the OGV. In Brno, once again, a successful installation of the author's lifetime work included not only his sculptural work, but also paintings, drawings and competition designs for his famous sculptures in public space. Many are certainly familiar with the characteristically stylized monumental statue of the patron saint of pilgrims and drivers, "St. Christopher", which is already an integral part of traveling on the D1 highway, and not only Brno residents have certainly registered the sculpture "Justice" on Moravian Square. The documentary in which Marius Kotrba speaks about his work in his own unique way was certainly beneficial to me.
Outside of my official rating, I would like to mention two exhibitions on the ground floor of the House of Arts. On my first visit, my colleagues and I had the opportunity to see an exhibition of embroidered objects by Maud Kotasová, which was great as always, and on my second visit, I was very pleased to see an installation by Brno street art artist TIMO, whose poetic and witty work with text never disappoints. Both of these smaller exhibitions were also worth a visit.
Thirdly, I would like to highlight the exhibition of Karel Malich in the Gočár Gallery in Pardubice, which we had the opportunity to see as part of the assembly of the Council of Galleries, and which was personally guided by the curator of the exhibition. We were able to discuss together not only the pros, but also some of the cons or rather disadvantages of this installation, as made possible by the newly renovated spaces of the Automatic Mills. In particular, the high hall extending over two floors of exhibition halls invites the placement of Malich's large-format wire sculptures, which was, by the way, very impressive for us visitors, but the technical implementation was quite demanding according to colleagues at the Pardubice gallery. Of course, for me the result and overall impression of the exhibition were again top-notch.
And I could go on and on, we saw many interesting exhibitions during the year, some of which Pavlína mentions. Personally, I would also highlight, for example, the exhibition "Get on the ice! Ice Hockey and Skating in Art", organized by the National Gallery in the Kinský Palace, where we went more out of curiosity and all three of us were pleasantly surprised at how well this unusual topic can be understood in connection with fine art.
Finally, I would like to mention two new permanent exhibitions of our friendly galleries, namely the exhibition "Transmission" in the Gočár Gallery and "Through the labyrinth" in the Gallery of the Central Bohemian Region in Kutná Hora, both of which I definitely recommend visiting.
Our calendar of planned art trips for this year is already filling up quickly, and we are very much looking forward to sharing our impressions of the new exhibitions with you again on the gallery website...
Jana Bojanovská
JJP, 12. 2. 2025
