DOI issue:
Rozprawy
DOI article:Piotrowski, Piotr: Totalitarianism and Modernism: the "thaw" and informel painting in central Europe, 1955 - 1965
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.28185#0159
TOTALITARIANISM AND MODERNISAI: THE “THAW” AND INFORMEL PAINTING IN CENTRAL EUROPE
157
clear-cut distinctions among certain historical standards do not make
much sense.
Still, regardless of Lahoda’s opinions on the Czech informel, it is not
difficult to notice the intensity of this art, its popularity incomparable to
the situation in any other country of Central Europe, and its considér-
able diversity. I do not mean here the margins of the trend, observable in
Poland and Slovakia, with the dominant hybrid of abstraction and objec-
tive painting, but the very core of the informel; abstract painting par ex-
cellence. On the one hand, there are examples of an almost classic vari-
ant of the painting of gesture, represented by such painters as Jiri Balcar
[il. 17]; Josef Istler [il. 18]; Jan Kotik [il. 19, 20, 21, 22], who travelled a
lot and knew the painting of the Western mformel, particularly of Asger
Jorn; and Antonin Tomalik [il. 23], who covered the canvas by a sériés of
vigorous brush strokes - the gestures, as it were, of the artist’s body.
Like the classic painting of gesture practiced ten years before by Har-
tung, Mathieu, and Wols, the works of Czech artists were a materialized
équivalent of the painter’s existence, a unique supplément of his physi-
cal, bodily identity.39 On the other hand, contrary to Lahoda’s opinions,
we can find a radical variant of the painting-as-matter, constructed not
just of the tensions of paint or paint “enhanced” with “non-artistic” mate-
rials (there are many examples of this kind of art as well: Zdenëk Beran
[il. 24], Cestmir Janosek [il. 25], Jan Koblasa [il. 26], Pavel Nesleha, Jiri
Valenta), but wholly of the “other” matter, as in the art of Zbysek Sion
[il. 27] and, in the first place, Aies Veselÿ, where it is not the matter but,
literally, material, such as métal and wood, which constitutes the auton-
omy of the work; its uniqueness and artistic identity [il. 28]. In this kind
of art ail the references to the artist’s existence are bound to disappear -
the resuit is an assemblage, a work that is identical with itself. However,
contrary to the American assemblage, incorporating objects from other
areas of culture (in particular from mass culture), the Czech assemblages
include materials which détermine their autonomous poetics. Besides,
unlike the American assemblages, Aies Veselÿ’s paintings-objects belong
to the modernist convention of art - adopting the “other” technologies,
they do not disrupt the idiom of modernism, formulate its critique or re-
ject its paradigm. In fact, they function within the realm of aesthetics,
and not against it. Determining the poetics of the painting-object, métal
springs and warped boards make the impressions of the spectator of the
classic painting of gesture or, to be précisé, the painting of the matter,
even more intense. In this respect, especially if we realize that the above
39 Cf. S. Lacombre, “Vivre une peinture sans tradition”, (in:) Paris-Paris, 1937-1957
Paris: Centre Georges Pompidou, 1981.
157
clear-cut distinctions among certain historical standards do not make
much sense.
Still, regardless of Lahoda’s opinions on the Czech informel, it is not
difficult to notice the intensity of this art, its popularity incomparable to
the situation in any other country of Central Europe, and its considér-
able diversity. I do not mean here the margins of the trend, observable in
Poland and Slovakia, with the dominant hybrid of abstraction and objec-
tive painting, but the very core of the informel; abstract painting par ex-
cellence. On the one hand, there are examples of an almost classic vari-
ant of the painting of gesture, represented by such painters as Jiri Balcar
[il. 17]; Josef Istler [il. 18]; Jan Kotik [il. 19, 20, 21, 22], who travelled a
lot and knew the painting of the Western mformel, particularly of Asger
Jorn; and Antonin Tomalik [il. 23], who covered the canvas by a sériés of
vigorous brush strokes - the gestures, as it were, of the artist’s body.
Like the classic painting of gesture practiced ten years before by Har-
tung, Mathieu, and Wols, the works of Czech artists were a materialized
équivalent of the painter’s existence, a unique supplément of his physi-
cal, bodily identity.39 On the other hand, contrary to Lahoda’s opinions,
we can find a radical variant of the painting-as-matter, constructed not
just of the tensions of paint or paint “enhanced” with “non-artistic” mate-
rials (there are many examples of this kind of art as well: Zdenëk Beran
[il. 24], Cestmir Janosek [il. 25], Jan Koblasa [il. 26], Pavel Nesleha, Jiri
Valenta), but wholly of the “other” matter, as in the art of Zbysek Sion
[il. 27] and, in the first place, Aies Veselÿ, where it is not the matter but,
literally, material, such as métal and wood, which constitutes the auton-
omy of the work; its uniqueness and artistic identity [il. 28]. In this kind
of art ail the references to the artist’s existence are bound to disappear -
the resuit is an assemblage, a work that is identical with itself. However,
contrary to the American assemblage, incorporating objects from other
areas of culture (in particular from mass culture), the Czech assemblages
include materials which détermine their autonomous poetics. Besides,
unlike the American assemblages, Aies Veselÿ’s paintings-objects belong
to the modernist convention of art - adopting the “other” technologies,
they do not disrupt the idiom of modernism, formulate its critique or re-
ject its paradigm. In fact, they function within the realm of aesthetics,
and not against it. Determining the poetics of the painting-object, métal
springs and warped boards make the impressions of the spectator of the
classic painting of gesture or, to be précisé, the painting of the matter,
even more intense. In this respect, especially if we realize that the above
39 Cf. S. Lacombre, “Vivre une peinture sans tradition”, (in:) Paris-Paris, 1937-1957
Paris: Centre Georges Pompidou, 1981.