DOI Artikel:
Bartlová, Milena: 1968: In search of "socialism with human face" in Czech art history
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.52521#0239
1968: In Search of "Socialism with Human Face" in Czech Art History 233
cause of - this fact, the discourse of Czech art and history of the 1960s was
not willing to accept Kosik's outline of the real, even rigorous, application of
materialist dialectics to the concept of art and to the interpretation method of
art history
On a practical level, the cultural liberalization of the second half of the
1960s did not only bring more publishing options for art historians, but it
also eased the fairly strict blockade of communication with other countries,
opened up more possibilities to travel outside the Soviet bloc and to cooperate
with foreign experts. Besides Vienna, art historians collaborated with their
colleagues in Munich, and medievalists participated in the summer schools
at Poitiers. Viktor Kotrba even lectured at the University of Bonn in 1964 and
for the whole summer semester in 1967.25 His important contact was Götz
Fehr, German architectural historian, native of Czechoslovakia and post-war
forced exile.26 The Czechoslovaks were helped to sustain contacts with the
world outside the Soviet bloc also by other Czech Germans. The restriction of
travel, so typical for most of the four decades of the Communist dictatorship,
was a much harsher blow for art historians than for other humanities. For art
historians, learning about art and architecture through personal experience,
or "autopsy," is methodologically crucial and absolutely indispensable. Vari-
ous institutional bureaus repeatedly pointed this fact out from the mid-1950s
on, but more possibilities did not occur until the mid-1960s, culminating in
1968-1969.
The new radical restriction of travels to "the West" after 1970 and the
enforced weakening of foreign professional contacts had a great impact. Like
the entire Czechoslovak intellectual environment, Czech art history was
also affected by political and employee purges at the turn of 1969 and 1970
that sealed the final victory of the Soviet-backed "conservatives" over "reform
Communism" with its "humanist Marxism." In the case of art history, the re-
sult more concerned individual researchers and did not mean the elimination
of entire departments, as was the case in other humanities. Yet it is obvious
that the achievements of Czech art history of the 1960s, the genesis of which
25 Institute for the History of Art, Czech Academy of Science, Dept, of Documen-
tation, collection Viktor Kotrba, vol. 23 (newspaper clippings) and volume Correspon-
dence 1 (Kurt Bauch, Götz Fehr); Masaryk Institute and the Archives of the Academy of
Sciences in Prague, collection CSAV - ÜTDU, vol. 17, inv. no. 314, sig. 602: Report for
the Foreign Dept, of the Presidium of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences, November
29th, 1966.
26 For G. Fehr see M. Winzeier, "Götz Fehr: Poznâmky k cesko-nëmeckému historikovi
umeni a staviteli kulturnich mostu v teźkych ćasech," in: Urneni a révolues. Pro Milenu
Bartlovou, eds. J. Lomova, J. Vybiral, Praha 2018, pp. 596-618.
cause of - this fact, the discourse of Czech art and history of the 1960s was
not willing to accept Kosik's outline of the real, even rigorous, application of
materialist dialectics to the concept of art and to the interpretation method of
art history
On a practical level, the cultural liberalization of the second half of the
1960s did not only bring more publishing options for art historians, but it
also eased the fairly strict blockade of communication with other countries,
opened up more possibilities to travel outside the Soviet bloc and to cooperate
with foreign experts. Besides Vienna, art historians collaborated with their
colleagues in Munich, and medievalists participated in the summer schools
at Poitiers. Viktor Kotrba even lectured at the University of Bonn in 1964 and
for the whole summer semester in 1967.25 His important contact was Götz
Fehr, German architectural historian, native of Czechoslovakia and post-war
forced exile.26 The Czechoslovaks were helped to sustain contacts with the
world outside the Soviet bloc also by other Czech Germans. The restriction of
travel, so typical for most of the four decades of the Communist dictatorship,
was a much harsher blow for art historians than for other humanities. For art
historians, learning about art and architecture through personal experience,
or "autopsy," is methodologically crucial and absolutely indispensable. Vari-
ous institutional bureaus repeatedly pointed this fact out from the mid-1950s
on, but more possibilities did not occur until the mid-1960s, culminating in
1968-1969.
The new radical restriction of travels to "the West" after 1970 and the
enforced weakening of foreign professional contacts had a great impact. Like
the entire Czechoslovak intellectual environment, Czech art history was
also affected by political and employee purges at the turn of 1969 and 1970
that sealed the final victory of the Soviet-backed "conservatives" over "reform
Communism" with its "humanist Marxism." In the case of art history, the re-
sult more concerned individual researchers and did not mean the elimination
of entire departments, as was the case in other humanities. Yet it is obvious
that the achievements of Czech art history of the 1960s, the genesis of which
25 Institute for the History of Art, Czech Academy of Science, Dept, of Documen-
tation, collection Viktor Kotrba, vol. 23 (newspaper clippings) and volume Correspon-
dence 1 (Kurt Bauch, Götz Fehr); Masaryk Institute and the Archives of the Academy of
Sciences in Prague, collection CSAV - ÜTDU, vol. 17, inv. no. 314, sig. 602: Report for
the Foreign Dept, of the Presidium of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences, November
29th, 1966.
26 For G. Fehr see M. Winzeier, "Götz Fehr: Poznâmky k cesko-nëmeckému historikovi
umeni a staviteli kulturnich mostu v teźkych ćasech," in: Urneni a révolues. Pro Milenu
Bartlovou, eds. J. Lomova, J. Vybiral, Praha 2018, pp. 596-618.