Communism, Canada and Cuba: new exhibition showcasing photographer Helena Wilson opens in Prague
An exhibition showcasing the work of photographer Helena Wilson got underway at the Prague City Gallery’s House of Photography earlier this week. Featuring over 140 images, it offers an intimate glimpse into life under communism in Czechoslovakia, as well as Wilson’s later projects in Canada and Cuba.
The showcase, entitled simply Helena Wilson: Photographs, is the most extensive retrospective exhibition of the Czech photographer, with whom the broader public became acquainted only after the 1989 Velvet Revolution.
Most of the images on display document dissident gatherings, moments of joy, but also the harsh realities of life during the Normalization period. These images capture the “parallel culture” of the 1970s—an unofficial art scene that flourished outside the regime's control.
Much of Wilson’s work focused on the non-conformist artists of the so-called “Křižovnická škola čistého humoru bez vtipu”, professing “pure humour without wit.” The group, whose informal base was a pub in Prague’s Křižovnická Street, united artists who refused to collaborate with the communist regime, explains the exhibition’s curator Jan Mlčoch.
“These people all had one thing in common. They refused to collaborate with the regime in the early 1970s. They didn't want to be involved in the official structures, which meant that they didn't exhibit and didn't publish their works, and they often ended up having jobs such as night guards or coal stokers. Some people were even arrested, and young people were bullied.”
Helena Wilson, who passed away in 2019, was married to Canadian writer, editor, and translator Paul Wilson. When he was expelled from Czechoslovakia in 1977 for his involvement with dissidents and the underground music scene, she followed him to Canada.
While living in Canada, she worked for art magazines and, in the early 1980s, began documenting the art and lives of North American Indigenous peoples. In the 1990s, her focus shifted to Havana, where she photographed life in the city’s slums. Jan Mlčoch again:
“She was always interested in people on the margins, such as people around independent art scenes, and later, Canada’s Indigenous artists and poor people in Havana. She always knew what was most important.”
The exhibition, organized by Prague City Gallery, was made possible by Helena Wilson’s generous donations to the Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague. These contributions included an extensive collection of her work, curated by Jan Mlčoch, who was also a close friend of the artist.
“I have known Helena and her husband since 1972. When she came back to the Czech Republic in the '90s, she offered us a large set of her work as a gift. And then, when she moved to Canada for good in 2018, she gave us more pictures. So we're probably the only ones to have such a comprehensive body of her work.”
The exhibition also includes artwork by Wilson’s friends and members of the Křižovnická School of Pure Humour Without Wit. It will remain on display at the House of Photography until February 23, 2025.
