Course detail
Mind, Body, Gesture and Idea: Forms of Czechoslovak Art from 1960s to Early 1990s
FaVU-MTGIAcad. year: 2023/2024
On the basis of thematic blocks, the course introduces the development and the curatorial and historiographical reflection of Czechoslovak art from the 1960s to the early 1990s with regard to international events. In particular, it deals with concept, action art, minimalism and neo-constructive tendencies. Instead of using a chronological survey, it focuses on specific topics that are often connected with distribution of art and its presentation; they are often independent of institutional support, relying on the models of friendly sharing, postal correspondence or, for example, on presentation in the form of author books and short-term projects. The structure of the course combines lectures and seminars. The lectures will focus on the theoretical approach to the selected thematic blocks. In the seminars, the students will be introduced to the methods of research, curatorial and collecting practices through visits to the archive of Jiří Valoch in the Moravian Gallery in Brno.
Language of instruction
Number of ECTS credits
Guarantor
Entry knowledge
Rules for evaluation and completion of the course
Attendance compulsory (70 percent of classes must be attended).
Aims
The students will acquire a basic overview of the Czechosloval conceptual art with regard to the international context. By means of excursions, they will get acquainted with primary archive sources and collections. Through their own research and artistic projects, they will get an experience of working with primary archive sources. They will be able to recognize the forms of conceptual art as well as to critically analyze this phenomenon, including its current research and changes in the course of time.
Study aids
Prerequisites and corequisites
Basic literature
Císař, Karel, Abeceda věcí: poznámky k modernímu a současnému umění, Praha, 2015. (CS)
Clarke, Paul, Performing the Archives: The Future of the Past, In: Performing Archives/Archives of Performance, Copenhagen, 2013. (CS)
Fischer, Hervé, Art et Communication Marginale, Tamponts d’Artists, Balland, 1974. (CS)
Grúň, Daniel, Archív umelca – paralelná inštitúcia alebo prostriedok seba-historizácie? Sešit pro umění, teorii a příbuzné zóny, 2011, č. 11, s. 64–83. (CS)
Hoptman, Laura; Tomáš Pospiszyl, Primary Documents: A Sourcebook for Eastern and Central European Art since the 1950s. The MIT Press, 2002. (CS)
Morganová, Pavlína, Procházka akční Prahou: akce performance happeningy 1949 – 1989, Praha, 2014. (CS)
Perneczky, Géza, The Magazine Network: the trends of alternative art in the light of their periodicals 1968–1988, Köln, 1993. (CS)
Schneider, Rebecca, Performance remains, in: Amelia Jones, Adrian Heathfield, Perform repeat record, Bristol, 2012. (CS)
Pospiszyl, Tomáš: Asociativní dějiny umění: poválečné umění napříč generacemi a médii, Praha, 2015. (CS)
Recommended reading
Type of course unit
Lecture
Teacher / Lecturer
Syllabus
Private archive as an alternative and parallel to official institutions; attempts to revise the history of art in Eastern and Central Europe; finding parallels and differences.
2. Searching for new sensitivity
Spread of the concept and new approaches to the work with image in Czechoslovakia during the 1970s and 1980s in the context of international affairs.
3. In nature
Environmental themes in conceptual work of Slovak and Czech authors; processual work in nature and its representatives.
4. Transformations of action art from 1960s to the end of 1980s
The happenings of the 1960s and internalization of the events during the 1970s; arrival of postmodern sensitivity in the 1980s; presentation of the main representatives of the genre.
5. Discourse over documentation, exhibition and accessibility of performative works in the form of their re-enactments
6. Participatory projects and short-term artistic encounters
Sharing of artistic gestures and postures in the course of short-term encounters and participatory projects. Organization of the first open studio of Rudolf Sikora in Bratislava; Balatonboglár or meeting of Hungarian, Slovak and Czech artists; activities of the Young Friends of Fine Arts at the House of Art in Brno; Festival on the Snow; Křížovnická school.
7. In the name of rationality, progress and pure form
Křižovatka exhibition and its guests; activities of the Club of Concretists.
8. Phenomenon of computer art
Max Bense and information aesthetics; New Tendencies movement; beginnings of computer art.
9. Author book as a substitute for exhibition
Phenomenon of author books as a platform for the spread of conceptual art.
10. Gallery in the mailbox
Mail art as a democratic artistic practice and distribution network of art. Comparison of the development of mail art movement in the countries of Eastern, Central and Western Europe and in the USA.
11. Text, script and image I.
Movement of concrete and visual poetry; work with text and script in visual arts.
12. Text, script and image II.
Movement of concrete and visual poetry; work with text and script in visual arts.