Czechoslovak Socialist Realist art exhibition opens at Rudolfinum
Visitors to a new exhibition on Czechoslovak Socialist Realist art from 1948 to 1958 at Prague's Rudolfinum have a rare chance to see diverse pieces from that era assembled in one place. Along with the predictable paintings of Stalin and posters depicting noble workers building a new society, the exhibition also features curious items such as small gifts which were presented to Communist leaders.
The Communists came to power in Czechoslovakia in February 1948, and it wasn't long before artists in the country started producing Socialist Realist art. The man behind the Rudolfinum exhibition, gallery director Petr Nedoma, says that while it would never have taken off as it did without coercion, the official Soviet style found fertile ground in the Czechoslovakia of the time.
"Socialist Realist art at the end of the 1940s and the beginning of the 1950s didn't arrive in Czechoslovakia from nowhere - it had a real basis in the art of the 1930s and 1940s. While Czechoslovak artists of that era did not form a communist "front", as they called it, their work was often left-wing, and socialist propaganda was accepted. Socialist Realism was the outcome of a tendency seen in the 30s and 40s."
The exhibition, which runs until February, is accompanied by a rich variety of events, such as debates, guided tours of Socialist Realist buildings and the screening of films, such as one about "the joyful life of women apprentices from the Zbrojovka armory works in Brno." There was nothing amusing however about Czechoslovakia's communist regime. Hundreds were killed, and over a quarter of a million sent to prison or labour camps. Isn't Petr Nedoma afraid that some, especially those who suffered directly, would find such an exhibition in bad taste, to say the least.
You can find out more about the exhibition of Czechoslovak Socialist Realist art at www.galerierudolfinum.cz
