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Jiří Kolář (1914–2002): Forms of Visual Poetry From the Collection of Museum Kampa, Prague

January 26-March 17, 2019
Curated by Aneta Georgievska-Shine

A man printed on a piece of fabric. The fabric is crumpled.

Jiří Kolář, Self-Portrait, 1971. Collection of Museum Kampa, The Jan and Meda Mladek Collection, Prague.

A decoupage globe.

Jiří Kolář, Globe with Stamps, c. 1965. Collection of Museum Kampa, The Jan and Meda Mladek Collection, Prague.

A paper collage. A woman.

Jiří Kolář, Married Venus, 1969. Collection of Museum Kampa, The Jan and Meda Mladek Collection, Prague.

Press

White Hot Magazine: Two Artists at the American University Museum at the Katzen Art Center, Washington, DC

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This exhibition is dedicated to one of the most remarkable Czech poets and visual artists associated with Modernism, Jiří Kolář (1914-2002). During the Communist regime in Czechoslovakia, Kolář encountered considerable challenges, including a prison sentence for the critical stance towards the system expressed in his poetry. Whether because “images” were less easily censurable than “words” or for other, personal reasons, from about 1959, he focused exclusively on visual arts - especially various experimental forms of collage. Yet most of his mixed-media works remained profoundly concerned with the word/image relationship, and can best be described as “visual” poetry.

The selection is representative of the main aspects of his oeuvre as it evolved over several decades. It includes a wide variety of collages in diverse techniques: both early works and those of his mature period; on very small scale and large ones; two-dimensional and sculptural.