Autumn exhibitions

Pursuing an investigation of social ontologies of art and society, the National Gallery in Prague is proudly announcing the exhibitions of the autumn season.

Douanier Rousseau: Painter’s Paradise Lost
September 15, 2016–January 15, 2017
Kinský Palace

Douanier Rousseau: Painter’s Paradise Lost, realized in cooperation with the Musée d’Orsay in Paris upon a concept by Gabriella Belli (Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia) and Guy Cogeval (Musée d’Orsay), places Rousseau in the context of other, no less famous artists and tries to trace stimuli linked with archaism, classicism and the artist’s original vision of realism. The exhibition in the National Gallery includes works by Czech artists such as Otto Gutfreund, Jan Zrzavý or Toyen which demonstrate the painter’s impact on the Czech environment.

Curated by Kristýna Brožová
 

Three Centuries of American Prints from the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
October 5, 2016–January 8, 2017
Trade Fair Palace

This exhibition offers a broad perspective on the history of American print production from its outset at the beginning of the 18th century until the present. The 140 prints on display represent graphic art production from the colonial and the Revolution periods to iconic works of the 20th century. The exhibition includes works by such artists as John Simon, James McNeill Whistler, Fanny Palmer, Mary Cassatt, Winslow Homer, George Bellows, Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, or Jackson Pollock.

Curated by Alena Volrábová upon the concept of Amy Johnston and Judith Brodie (National Gallery of Art)
 

Third Mind. Jiří Kovanda and the (Im)Possibility of Collaboration
October 5, 2016–January 8, 2017
Trade Fair Palace

With Jiří Kovanda, Edith Jeřábková, Jiří David, Markéta Othová, Katarína Hládeková, Stanislava Karbušická, Richard Nikl, Denisa Lehocká, Eva Koťátková, Barbora Kleinhamplová, Zbyněk Baladrán, Vladimír Skrepl, Tomáš Svoboda, Silvina Arismendi, Nina Beier, Fernanda Gomes, Guillaume Désanges

“Existence is with: otherwise nothing exists,” thus the French philosopher Jean-Luc Nancy elaborates his ontology of “with,” identified as “closeness (…), the almost-there of distanced proximity.” The exhibition Third Mind. Jiří Kovanda and the (Im)Possibility of Collaboration focuses on the collaborative aspects of Czech artist Jiří Kovanda’s artistic practice. It gathers art works that were conceived together and in a dialogue with other artists and cultural producers including the audience. Borrowing its title from a seminal “book of methods” by William Burroughs and Brion Gysin, the exhibition investigates the conditions of a collaborative work and it questions its autonomy and identity as a collective endeavor. Ultimately, it unfolds a primary tissue of with, unveiling the world, the Other and the meaning within a process of mutual coproduction. Jiří Kovanda (b. 1953) remains one of the most significant contemporary Czech artists. Practicing poetry of everyday life and of human gesture, Kovanda elaborates a subtle and anti-monumental oeuvre.

Curated by Adam Budak
 

Against Nature. Young Czech Art Scene
October 5, 2016–January 15, 2017
Trade Fair Palace

With Alžběta Bačíková, David Fesl, Ondřej Filípek, Kateřina Holá, Martin Lukáč, Tatiana Nikulina, Ondřej Petrlík, Johana Pošová, Anna Ročňová, Lucie Rosenfeldová, Martina Smutná, Rudolf Skopec, Viktorie Valocká

In the celebratory year of its 220th anniversary, the National Gallery in Prague is launching a new exhibition project, devoted to the exploration of the youngest Czech art scene. Anti-monumental at its core, focused and concise, the survey is thematically outlined by the curatorial approach and a careful selection process, provided by a double perspective of the local and international curators.

In its inaugural edition, prepared under the title Against Nature, Edith Jeřábková (Prague) and Chris Sharp (Mexico City) put an emphasis on making, the handmade, and thinking through materials while working in more traditional media, such as painting, sculpture and photography. What is natural? How is that defined? And in contrast to what? This timely gathering of artists also speaks a number of socio-political issues accompanying the production of contemporary art in general today.  

Curated by Edith Jeřábková and Chris Sharp
 

Introducing
Megan Clark: Somatic
October 5, 2016–January 15, 2017
Trade Fair Palace

Clark’s practice is the result of quiet observation and thoughtful introspection, which generally produces very intimate and sensitive work. The artist is interested in using irrational means to explore obscure elements of presence and existence. Originally from Montana, USA, Megan Clark (b. 1989) has spent the past year studying Intermedia at The Academy of Arts, Architecture, and Design in Prague (UMPRUM).

Introduced by Jimena Mendoza (b. 1979, a Mexican artist who graduated the Master Program in Visual Arts in UMPRUM, Prague).
 

Poetry Passage#4
I Am the Mouth
Agnieszka Polska
featuring Jean-Luc Nancy, Vox Clamans in Deserto
October 5, 2016–January 15, 2017
Trade Fair Palace

Language, the sensuality of sound and materiality of voice are in the centre of the Poetry Passage#4. The video I Am the Mouth (2014) by Agnieszka Polska (b. 1985) is the artist’s manifesto of the emBODYment of a language. The exhibition generates a fictive dialogue with Jean-Luc Nancy’s seminal essay/play, a meditation on body, voice and speech, Vox Clamans in Deserto (1993). Polska’s cinematic work and Nancy’s literary construction of a presence search for the language’s sites of exposure, the connecting points of the writing’s (and speaking’s) liminal condition(s).

Curated by Adam Budak
 

Moving Image Department
6th Chapter: Inner Lives (of Time)
October 5, 2016–January 15, 2017
Trade Fair Palace

With Maya Deren, Teresa Hubbard / Alexander Birchler, Markéta Othová
featuring Josef Dabernig, Liam Gillick 

The 6th chapter concentrates on two parallel themes—the (inner) architecture of time and the architecture as a vehicle of a (real and imagined) temporality. The works gathered here are reveries, oscillating between the states of dreaming and waking. They express the psychology of both time and architecture, and their influence upon the protagonists’ acts. From the trance films of Maya Deren through a cinematographic masterpiece, House with Pool (2004), by Teresa Hubbard / Alexander Birchler down to the structural poetry of Markéta Othová’s photography and the poetic structure of Josef Dabernig’s already iconic Montage-System, the exhibition loops the stories in a search for a cinematic truth and magic. 

Curated by Adam Budak
 

Also on view:
Jindřich Chalupecký Award: Final 2016 + Laure Prouvost: C’est l’est Not ouest
October 5, 2016–January 8, 2017
Trade Fair Palace

Finalists: Aleš Čermák, Katarína Hládeková, Anna Hulačová, Matyáš Chochola, Johana Střížková
Guest: Laure Prouvost (France)
Curated by Karina Kottová
 

StartPoint 2016—Prize For European Art Academy Graduates
October 5–December 11, 2016
Trade Fair Palace