Frantisek Tichy exhibition at House at the Stone Bell
If you stop a Czech and ask him what painter springs to mind when you mention harlequins and clowns, he will most probably say Frantisek Tichy. With over three hundred pieces of graphic art and hundreds of drawings and paintings, Frantisek Tichy is one of the country's most famous artists. However, since his death in 1961, Czechs have had little opportunity to see his work. That is why the City Gallery Prague opened an exhibition this month, putting over 250 works from Tichy on display at the House at the Stone Bell. Jana Orlikova is the author of the exhibition:
"There have been many exhibitions in Prague of his work but they have never been as big as this one. In the last ten years, exhibitors avoided Tichy for some reason. There were two notable exhibitions - in the towns of Roudnice and Plzen - but they still did not display the broad spectrum of works that we have here. It is not because it is too much work but simply because there was a lack of interest until now."
Frantisek Tichý was born in 1896 and died in Prague in 1961. He was a painter, drawer, graphic artist, illustrator, and even a stage designer. As a trained lithographer, he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts for some six years before giving up his studies. In 1930 he suddenly left Prague and went to France where he stayed for five years. His first separate exhibition was organised in Prague in 1934.
"Frantisek Tichy left Prague in 1930 with the goal of visiting Sao Paulo in Brazil. However, he got stuck in Marseilles, France, because he was unable to get on a ship to South America. That was a stroke of luck because it was in France that he realised he wanted to become a painter. He ended up staying in France for five years - a period which was the height of his career as an artist."
