Grafika (1983)
1 GRAPHIC ART AND DÍLO GALLERIES Graphic art — ranking third alongside painting and sculpture in the hierarchy of fine arts — is experiencing at present a remarkable creative upsurge. Judging by the amount and quality of the work, it would be difficult to find a comparable period in the past. This is documented by the growing interest in the numerous exhibitions specially devoted to graphic art, the long lists of awards at international competitions, the marked importance accorded to graphic art exhibitions organized on a nationwide scale and, finally, the very lively public response. In the context of modern visual arts, graphic art has — thanks to its experssive potential and inherent ability to function as one of the most democratic forms of art appealing to the broad masses —• acquired a legitimacy of its own. Easily accessible, graphic art becomes part of public sensibility more readily than other art forms and, just as in the past, its commitment extends to many walks of life — political, social and private. High standards of craftsmanship, a wealth of expressive techniques, broad range of motifs, conceptual maturity of form are some of the vital characteristics of graphic art today. But perhaps the quality we find most appealing — a feature which in fact defines the intrinsic value of graphic art — is the highly personal manner in which a work gives expression to the many aspects of our turbulent times. It is this quality that makes graphic art part of our private world. The small-scale format and style of presentation in galleries enable us in a way to get the physical feel of the artist’s work. We are not reduced to only using our eyes, we can pick the work up to appreciate the delicate scheme of surfaces and contours. Indeed the countless variations and nuances of expression that each graphic technique allows for correspond, more than elsewhere, to the senses and emotions of human nature. Although graphic art can look back on a history encompassing more than five hundred years, its modern history is surprisingly short. Modern Czech graphic art has been seeking its identity since the beginning of the twentieth century, when it shook off the conventional deadwood of mere reproduction and illustration. Even though Czech graphic art cannot claim a coherent tradition and developmental continuity, whithin a few decades it gained creative autonomy and developed its own expressive idiom, reflecting the specificity of what is recognizably a national school. Using a distinctive creative medium, graphic art explored its own inner potential, without neglecting the more general aesthetic functions. One instinctively tends to associate graphic art with the craft aspects and operational skills —■ and rightly so, for about twenty different techniques have been developed throughout its history. But despite period preferences, the yardstick remained the same — the artist’s command of his techniques excluding the element of spontaneity, chance and improvization. It is exactly this artistry, technical virtuosity, formal perfection (which at times, unfortunately, may conceal creative perplexity or a poverty of meaning) that arouses the interest of professional observers and general public alike. Apart from a few exceptions documenting the work of the oldest and the youngest generations, the selection presented centres on artists of the ‘middle-aged group’ who emerged in the limelight during the 1950s. The creative output of these artists, determining in the main the style and image of contemporary graphic art, is frequently on view at exhibitions and in the “sales galleries” of the Czech Fund of Visual Arts. Students trained by outstanding artists, such as Vladimir Pukl, Vladimir Silovskÿ and Karel Svolinskÿ, developing the heritage of prewar progressive artists, proceed from the true strength and tradition of Czech visual arts. The extraordinary vitality of these talents is best reflected in the distinctive variety of demanding techniques, in work displaying originality as to expressive style and idiom. Individual creative styles frequently pushed the possible forms of expression of the more classical graphic approach right to the extreme limits and revived other techniques previously rarely used. Woodcut — historically the oldest graphic technique —• flourished in the Czech Lands at the end of the nineteenth century, gaining new momentum in the 1920s as a suitable and particularly efficient instrument for the interpretation of social attitudes. During the period of socialist construction, woodcuts mirrored the social struggles of the day and the new creative élan of our society. The terse and remarkably concise technique of the woodcut is used with profit in the work of Jaroslav Chudomel, Artist of Merit, in the compact, dynamic composition of Central Bohemian landscapes and in Jifi Mikula’s dramatic presentation of themes and topics from revolutionary history. Shakespearian