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About the gallery
We are opening the Art brut Prague Gallery as the first exhibition space in Prague focused exclusively on the work of artists who, for various reasons, are unable or unwilling to join the mainstream art scene.
“Here, things are raised proudly
and more stabbingly,
the world is full of edges
on which we have
hurt ourselves many times.”
The quote, taken from Josef Čapek’s groundbreaking book The Most Modest Art, will greet all visitors at the entrance as a foreshadowing of the type of work they will encounter here.
To clearly define the gallery, the name was chosen after the painter Jean Dubuffet’s famous term art brut – usually translated in Czech as “art in its raw state”.
But not all the artists the gallery will represent necessarily fall into the category of art brut as it is usually conceived. Some of them, for various reasons, become outsiders, not even classifiable in this field.
The selection of the artists is basically conditioned by the absence of any conscious calculation in their work aimed at achieving success in the world of contemporary art.
The gallery also wants to support its artists by making their works available for sale.
Exhibitions
George Radojčić
Words, words, words… Pictures. Love.
Slova, slova, slova… Obrazy. Láska.
27. 6.–30. 8. 2024
Curator of the exhibition: Jaromír Typlt.
Preview: Wednesday 26th of June, 7pm
“I have my inspiration: the struggle between good and evil,” writes George Radojčić (born 1987 in Sarajevo) in one of his personal notes, assuring himself that doesn’t have to worry about his future as a painter: there have been and will be enough battles where the future of our world is being decided. Also, the title “Battles for Big Love”, which George gave to his first exhibition in the Art brut Praha gallery in November 2022, was not at all coincidental.
His second solo exhibition invites us once again into the battlefields and battle scenes, but in a slightly different way: George has been painting at the Atelier of Joyful Creativity in Letná, where he regularly visits, since 2018. Here he began to develop the stories from his personal notebooks into large drawings. The result is a series of illustrated manuscripts, originally written on individual pages and accompanied by black and white ink drawings, now transformed into colourful illustrated books.
Radojčić tells his own heroic sagas, which he spontaneously creates in the manner of the popular fantasy game Dragon’s Den. He draws inspiration from the Tolkien’s mythology, but the main characters are mainly chosen from the ancient world: new stories of Cassandra, Cleopatra, Cyrrhus, Nausicaa, Julius Caesar, Marcus Antonius, the warriors of Troy and the Persian Wars are being told.
George Radojčić was one of four artists from the Atelier of Joyful Creativity who were included in the Prague City Gallery’s exhibition “Thinking through Images. The Visual Events of Miroslav Petříček”, in the autumn of 2023. He regularly appears in the Artinbox gallery in Prague and has also had solo exhibitions at the Nová síň, the café of the House of Arts in Olomouc, Café Nona in Prague and the Senate of the Czech Republic.
A short film based on Radojčić’s world was made in collaboration with animator Magdalena Hejzlarová in 2022. “Dominik’s Tales” were based on his own theme, using the technique of animated oil painting. The author repeatedly remarked that the work was only a fragment of a much larger story, which could certainly be made into a feature film. And the heroic sagas in this exhibition run in a similar vein – you are invited to catch a glimpse of some of his never-ending stories.
Jaromír Typlt
Movie:
Dominik´s Tales
https://barvolam.cz/en/dominikovy-pribehy
About the authors
The main circle of authors is formed by the persons who create in the Studio of Joyful Creation at Letná: Dagmar Filípková, Šárka Hojaková, Dominik Jirsa, Jarmila Jandová, Marie Kohoutková, Václav Kuklík, Marie Kůsová, Lorenzo, Karel Pajma, Lukáš Paleček, Vojtěch Proske, George Radojčič, Iveta Riminka Filí, Ladislav Svoboda will be presented here.
However, internationally known names such as Anna Zemánková or Zdeněk Košek will also be represented. Other authors who have already gained attention include Hana Fousková, La Inthonkaew, Ota Prouza, Helena Skalická and Tomáš Krupka.
Practical information
The gallery will be open five afternoons a week, Tuesday to Saturday 2 – 7pm.
www.artbrutpraha.cz
artbrut.praha@gmail.com
+420 606 028 942 (during opening hours)
+420 602 646 665 (out of hours)
Postal address: Galerie Art brut Praha, Resslova 300/6,
120 00 Praha 2 – Nové Město.
About the place and the founder
The gallery acquired its space after the renovation of a long unused technical building at St. Wenceslas Church in Zderaz.
The operator is the Altán Art association, which has so far been active mainly in Letná: in 2013 it opened the Studio of Joyful Creation here as the first Czech studio providing facilities for artists falling into the category of art brut, and in 2017 it opened up also to the wider public by establishing the ART Cultural and Community Centre, where senior citizens and people with disabilities develop their artistic interests together. Vladimír Drábek is the main representative of the association. More information on the website www.altanart.cz .
Curator
Jaromír Typlt (1973) is a poet, performer and essayist. During 2000-2010 he worked in Liberec as a curator of photography and contemporary art exhibitions at the Small Exhibition Hall and then at the U Rytíře Gallery. Since the end of the 1990s he has also helped to promote the work of overlooked authors, publishing the first book on Zdeněk Košek (2001), literary texts by Hana Fousková, František Novák and many others. In 2018, he started cooperation with the association Altán Art. He has long focused on the topic of “écrits bruts” – written expressions in art brut.
Gallery partners
Studio of Joyful Creation at Letná
Czechoslovak Hussite Church in Prague 2 – New Town
Graphic studio chapter
abcd praha
Media partners
Analogon
Revolver Revue
Souvislosti
I am convinced that a considerable circle of artists, those interested in art brut and the
Pavel Konečný, art brut collector
professional public can form around the Art Brut Prague gallery in a very short time. The
project is a positive response not only to initiatives stemming from the vibrant undercurrent of
our spontaneous creativity, but also responds to calls from foreign cultural institutions to
strengthen the voice of outsider art, including by improving intercultural cooperation and
dialogue across European borders.