Tichy exhibition, Festival of French Film
The House at the Stone Bell, situated on Prague's Old Town Square, is currently exhibiting works of one of the country's most famous artists - Frantisek Tichy. Although he is mainly known for his paintings of harlequins and clowns, Tichy worked on over three hundred pieces of graphic art and hundreds of drawings and paintings. Until March next year, visitors will have the chance to see some 500 works which include paintings, illustrations, samples of posters, and less-known artistic jewelry and scripts for theatre plays that Tichy found much interest in from the early stage of his life as an artist. The exhibition was organised by the City Gallery Prague thanks to a number of galleries and private collectors who lent Tichý's work from their collections. According to Jana Orlikova, the author of the exhibition, it is one of a kind as it is the biggest display of Tichy's work since his death some forty years ago:
"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 Tichy was born on March 25th 1896 and died in Prague on October 7th 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 Paris where he stayed for five years. His first separate exhibition was organised in Prague in 1934.
The first part of the current exhibition, represents work made in the period before Tichy's stay in France. It presents portraits, still lives and the first contacts with the world of circus and conjurers, in which the artist strove to find his individual distinctive mark but still struggled with some technical difficulties, mainly in painting. Nevertheless, some of his work started to show lightness, drawing virtuosity and distinctive touch.
"Frantisek Tichy left Prague in 1930 with the goal of visiting Sao Paulo in Brazil, where he was asked to manage a lithography workshop. 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 and despite the fact that he had to live a modest life, the five years saw the height of his career as an artist."
In Paris, Tichy achieved technical perfection under the influence of Seurat, Redon and the old masters, mainly of the rococo style. This is also where he focused on themes such as bullfights, streets, retreats and roofs of Paris, the circus world and portraits of his close friends. They naturally included still lives, which he perceived as one of the essential painter's roles. The exhibition shows examples of all the main themes of that period. Tichy's experience in France, its culture and landscape, formed the foundation stone of Tichy's artistic maturation and the biggest inspiration of his very personal way of expression.
"I don't think that his work was influenced by any one specific person but one can clearly see that he had a strong French influence. Out of all Czech artists, Frantisek Tichy was able to capture and understand French art the best and bring its soul here to the Czech Republic."
Another part of the exhibition displays Tichy's work made between 1935 and 1945 when he was back in Prague. During these ten years, Tichy's experience in France is very much reflected in his art. The period was furthermore crowned with his appointment to a professorship at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague. It opens the concluding part of the exhibition in which all Tichý's themes are further developed with more illustrations and small occasional pieces of graphic art.
The French Institute in Prague not only offers French classes, access to French books, and introductions to French culture but also plays a large role in promoting French movies in the Czech Republic. For a very small fee, visitors can view French classics at screenings throughout the week and once a year, the Festival of French Film introduces contemporary feature films to Czech audiences. On average, some 200 feature films are produced in France every year. The Festival of French Film was first launched in 1996 out of an initiative of the French Embassy's cultural department with the aim to introduce French productions to Czech cinemas. This year, eleven movies will be introduced in 18 screenings at Prague's Lucerna cinema from December 6th to December 9th. Each film will be preceded by a short animated film made by students at the Prague Faculty of Film and viewers will be able to rate every moving after its screening. Directors such as Vincent Perez are expected to come to Prague to introduce their latest films.
