Action Art, Utopian Visions, Conceptual Approaches (1960-1980s)

The launch of the first artificial satellite Sputnik 1 into space in 1957 started a new era for humankind. Of course, this revolutionary event also had an effect on the arts. It was a challenge to, and a confirmation of, the conviction of exceptional creative spirits that art should discard existing forms and should go hand in hand with the boldest scientific visions. Various utopian architectural visions of our world were known from the past, but now it seemed that the solution was almost within reach. It is possible to characterize the situation when, in a period of severe restrictions to freedom, a flowering of lyrical and gestural painting, informalism and a germination of geometric tendencies, Václav Cigler, two of whose works are exhibited here, in 1959 began to create, in complete isolation, his first drawings for landscaping projects. His vision later resulted in no less remarkable utopian projects through the transformation of entire residential agglomerations, in certain parts extending into the space of the cosmos.

Another visionary of the changes to the social function of art, as well as of new seemingly non-artistic forms of art, was Milan Knížák. Since 1963 he has been organizing events – ‘happenings’ - outside the established world of art, in Prague streets and courtyards. He wanted to ignite creative sensitivity in ‘ordinary’ people. From the late 1960s a number of other artists took up this means of new creative communication.

A third, again extremely radical form of art that emerged from the explosion of creativity in the 1960s, was conceptual art. Conceptualists also rejected the traditional forms of art, and attention was focused on the demonstration of the creative mind itself. For the layman, however, this form of art is hard to understand because it requires considerable knowledge not only of the history of modern art, but also of linguistics and other humanities. In addition, it requires the intellectual cooperation of the viewer; sometimes to such an extent that the audience becomes part of the work, if they understand ‘the rules of the game’.