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New realisms - exhibition

Date
03.10 - 02.02.2025
Time
10:00
Tickets
Info from the organizer

The New Realism exhibition project prepared for the East Slovak Gallery in Košice and the Liptovská Gallery of Petr Michal Bohúň in Liptovský Mikuláš is based on the research project of the same name by an international team of researchers and the subsequent exhibition held in the Gallery of the Capital City of Prague. It provides an overview of modern realistic approaches that developed on the Czechoslovak art scene between 1918 and 1945. The selection of individual works transcends traditional ethnic, group and territorial divisions. The common denominator of the presented paintings, sculptures and photographs is the focus on the actuality of life at that time and its real problems ('according to the truth') and the effort to capture reality in a penetrating, but not simply descriptive manner. Modern realistic approaches do not describe reality mechanically, but reflect its forms in a sophisticated way. The focus is not only on the hustle and bustle of the big city and women's emancipation, but also work, entertainment and everyday sorrows, still lifes and landscapes. The Košice exhibition is focused on painting and sculpture, the presentation in Liptovský Mikuláš on photography and film. Together, they create a comprehensive picture that complements the existing knowledge of modern art in the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Within the Czechoslovak artistic environment, manifestations of modern realism were rather scattered and not dominant. They mainly corresponded with contemporary trends on the German, Italian, Dutch or American scene. 'New realism' represents an umbrella framework for modern realistic tendencies emerging in the 20s of the 20th century, with which several artistic trends correspond, while at the core of the issue lies a new objectivity. It was defined in the mid-1920s by the German curator Gustav Friedrich Hartlaub and theoretician Franz Roh. From the beginning, it included the ideologically incompatible polarity of the imaginary right and left wings and was characterized by an effort to objectively capture reality. 'New realism' sought to become, in the spirit of the ideas of the new man, a modern interpretive approach that would bring art closer to people. He showed numerous connections with the media, which in fact really overcame the elitist nature of art and became tools of mass communication through photography and film.

Art has always responded sensitively to current stimuli. The process of development of modern realism in visual arts has not stopped, it is just constantly changing. The modern realistic approaches of the 1920s and 1940s, observed here, teetered on the edge of absolute objectivity and sophisticated play with reality, which are moments that also accompany the current society of the third decade of the 21st century. Moments of uncertainty and examination of the essence of reality are also part of our everyday reality.

More about the exhibition: https://vsg.sk/nove-realizmy-moderne-realisticke.../

The exhibition is held in cooperation with the Gallery of the Capital City of Prague and is divided into two parts - in the East Slovak Gallery in Košice and in the Liptovsky Gallery of Petr Michal Bohúň in Liptovský Mikuláš.

The exhibition was supported from public funds by the Art Support Fund.

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Work used for the visuals of the exhibition: Ilona Singer, Still life with cacti, 1930, oil, canvas, 70 × 90 cm, Jewish Museum in Prague