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6/19/2011 Houston— The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH),
presents New Formations: Czech Avant-Garde Art and Modern Glass from the
Roy and Mary Cullen Collection November 6, 2011-February 5, 2012,
shedding light on a still under-known chapter of 20th-century art. The
exhibition features more than 150 Czech avant-garde works amassed by
Houston philanthropists Roy and Mary Cullen, including outstanding
examples from the flowering of Czech Surrealism; rare artists‘ books and
avant-garde periodicals; and exquisitely molded and blown modern glass.
The exhibition is curated by leading art historians based in Prague,
Karel Srp of the Prague Municipal Gallery and independent scholar Lenka
Bydžovská; Alison de Lima Greene, MFAH curator of contemporary art and
special projects, has also contributed to the catalogue and organized
this exhibition for Houston.
―This project builds and expands upon the MFAH‘s nationally acclaimed 1989 Czech Modernism: 1900 – 1945 exhibition,‖ said MFAH interim director Gwendolyn H. Goffe. ―However, there is still much to learn about 20th-century Czech art and its contribution to European modernism. The Cullens have shown imaginative flair and true connoisseurship in re-telling this story through their collection, literally a ‗New Formation‘ of the international avant garde."
―Roy and Mary Cullen have built several significant collections, ranging from Latin American modernism to contemporary Texas and Chicago artists," Greene added. ―Their commitment to Czech avant-garde came about by a happy coincidence. They were deeply impressed by our Czech Modernism exhibition. Equally important, however, was the Cullens‘ first-hand experience of the Velvet Revolution. They were in Prague the day that Vaclav Havel was elected president in December 1989, an event which decisively ended over five decades of Communist rule. For the Cullens, this was a profoundly inspiring moment in history."
Many of the artists introduced to American audiences by Czech Modernism in 1989 are represented in the Cullen collection, including Toyen, Josef Šíma, Karel Teige, and Jindrich Štyrský. However, New Formations will highlight significant artists overlooked by the earlier exhibition, including the Skupina 42 (Group 42) artists (František Hudeček, Bohumír Matal, and Alois Wachsman, among others), whose work captures the desperate spirit of World War II. Additionally, the Cullens‘ exceptional collection of the radical feminist Toyen represents the full arc of her career, from her early book illustrations and abstractions of the 1920s and 1930s, to her passionately autobiographical Surrealist compositions, to her final years in post-war Paris.
The title New Formations is taken from the Artificielismus (Artificialism) manifesto, published in 1927–28 by Štyrský and Toyen. It aptly reflects the Cullens‘ spirit of adventure and their commitment to charting this lost chapter of the avant-garde. ―Czech artists were trapped in a 50-year time capsule, and nobody, I mean nobody, outside of Czechoslovakia knew what was there," Mary Cullen has stated. ―Czech art is still not fully integrated into the history of the 20th century [and] I really wanted to make sure that the collection tells the whole story as much as possible."
About the Exhibition
The exhibition opens with the publications of the Devětsil Artistic Association (1920-31), which briefly united the post-World War I Czech avant-garde. The brilliant artist and theoretician Karel Teige was the association‘s often contentious leader, and Toyen, Josef Šíma, and Jindrich Štyrský were among its pioneering members. Among the works on view will be the first Devětsil anthology, Jaroslav Seifert and Teige‘s groundbreaking collaboration On the Waves of TSF, and the complete run of ReD (Revue Devětsil), proclaimed by Teige to be the ―last word of international modernism, modern restraint, and modern will: revolution.‖ The poet Vítězslav Nezval‘s celebrated Abeceda (Alphabet) will also be featured. The book was illustrated by choreographer and dancer Milča Magerova‘s physical interpretations of Nezval‘s poems based on the letters of the alphabet, and it remains among the most cherished statements of Czech art.
The second section of the exhibition focuses on the production of the Devětsil artists in relation to their Paris contemporaries, with an emphasis on the development of the uniquely Czech movements of Artificialism and Poetism; while the third segment uncovers the Czech avant-garde‘s fascination with erotic exploration. Among the featured works in this section is Štyrský‘s haunting collage for Emilie Comes to Me in a Dream, 1933.
The fourth segment of the exhibition documents the production of the Czech Surrealists in the 1930s, and features among other works Toyen‘s magisterial The Message of the Forest, 1936. The subsequent chapters address the war years, when Czech artists were forced to work underground, and Toyen‘s subsequent life in exile.
New Formations concludes with a glorious array of 30 examples of Czech modern glass, selected from the Cullen collection by noted scholar Jan Mergl. The Cullen collection provides an overview of Czech glass from 1900 to the end of the 1930s, showcasing a period of swift transformation from Art Nouveau to the clean lines of Czech Functionalism. And while the history of Czech glass in the 20th century is rarely considered in juxtaposition with that of the avant-garde, seen as a whole, the Cullen collection suggests a larger view of visual and material culture that is both provocative and refreshing.
A symposium devoted to the exhibition is planned for Saturday, November 5. Guest curators Karel Srp and Lenka Bydžovská will be among the invited speakers, as well as Matthew Witkovsky, curator and chair of the photography department at the Art Institute of Chicago, and Jindřich Toman, Professor of Slavic Languages at the University of Michigan.
―This project builds and expands upon the MFAH‘s nationally acclaimed 1989 Czech Modernism: 1900 – 1945 exhibition,‖ said MFAH interim director Gwendolyn H. Goffe. ―However, there is still much to learn about 20th-century Czech art and its contribution to European modernism. The Cullens have shown imaginative flair and true connoisseurship in re-telling this story through their collection, literally a ‗New Formation‘ of the international avant garde."
―Roy and Mary Cullen have built several significant collections, ranging from Latin American modernism to contemporary Texas and Chicago artists," Greene added. ―Their commitment to Czech avant-garde came about by a happy coincidence. They were deeply impressed by our Czech Modernism exhibition. Equally important, however, was the Cullens‘ first-hand experience of the Velvet Revolution. They were in Prague the day that Vaclav Havel was elected president in December 1989, an event which decisively ended over five decades of Communist rule. For the Cullens, this was a profoundly inspiring moment in history."
Many of the artists introduced to American audiences by Czech Modernism in 1989 are represented in the Cullen collection, including Toyen, Josef Šíma, Karel Teige, and Jindrich Štyrský. However, New Formations will highlight significant artists overlooked by the earlier exhibition, including the Skupina 42 (Group 42) artists (František Hudeček, Bohumír Matal, and Alois Wachsman, among others), whose work captures the desperate spirit of World War II. Additionally, the Cullens‘ exceptional collection of the radical feminist Toyen represents the full arc of her career, from her early book illustrations and abstractions of the 1920s and 1930s, to her passionately autobiographical Surrealist compositions, to her final years in post-war Paris.
The title New Formations is taken from the Artificielismus (Artificialism) manifesto, published in 1927–28 by Štyrský and Toyen. It aptly reflects the Cullens‘ spirit of adventure and their commitment to charting this lost chapter of the avant-garde. ―Czech artists were trapped in a 50-year time capsule, and nobody, I mean nobody, outside of Czechoslovakia knew what was there," Mary Cullen has stated. ―Czech art is still not fully integrated into the history of the 20th century [and] I really wanted to make sure that the collection tells the whole story as much as possible."
About the Exhibition
The exhibition opens with the publications of the Devětsil Artistic Association (1920-31), which briefly united the post-World War I Czech avant-garde. The brilliant artist and theoretician Karel Teige was the association‘s often contentious leader, and Toyen, Josef Šíma, and Jindrich Štyrský were among its pioneering members. Among the works on view will be the first Devětsil anthology, Jaroslav Seifert and Teige‘s groundbreaking collaboration On the Waves of TSF, and the complete run of ReD (Revue Devětsil), proclaimed by Teige to be the ―last word of international modernism, modern restraint, and modern will: revolution.‖ The poet Vítězslav Nezval‘s celebrated Abeceda (Alphabet) will also be featured. The book was illustrated by choreographer and dancer Milča Magerova‘s physical interpretations of Nezval‘s poems based on the letters of the alphabet, and it remains among the most cherished statements of Czech art.
The second section of the exhibition focuses on the production of the Devětsil artists in relation to their Paris contemporaries, with an emphasis on the development of the uniquely Czech movements of Artificialism and Poetism; while the third segment uncovers the Czech avant-garde‘s fascination with erotic exploration. Among the featured works in this section is Štyrský‘s haunting collage for Emilie Comes to Me in a Dream, 1933.
The fourth segment of the exhibition documents the production of the Czech Surrealists in the 1930s, and features among other works Toyen‘s magisterial The Message of the Forest, 1936. The subsequent chapters address the war years, when Czech artists were forced to work underground, and Toyen‘s subsequent life in exile.
New Formations concludes with a glorious array of 30 examples of Czech modern glass, selected from the Cullen collection by noted scholar Jan Mergl. The Cullen collection provides an overview of Czech glass from 1900 to the end of the 1930s, showcasing a period of swift transformation from Art Nouveau to the clean lines of Czech Functionalism. And while the history of Czech glass in the 20th century is rarely considered in juxtaposition with that of the avant-garde, seen as a whole, the Cullen collection suggests a larger view of visual and material culture that is both provocative and refreshing.
A symposium devoted to the exhibition is planned for Saturday, November 5. Guest curators Karel Srp and Lenka Bydžovská will be among the invited speakers, as well as Matthew Witkovsky, curator and chair of the photography department at the Art Institute of Chicago, and Jindřich Toman, Professor of Slavic Languages at the University of Michigan.
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