Jitka Svobodová: Beyond the Edge of the Visible

Author: multiple authors

Bookshop in the Municipal Library
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eshop

Price: CZK 470

Upon presentation of the ticket 10% discount
GHMP Member 20 % discount
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GHMP Patron 30 % discount

Publisher: GHMP
Year of publication:  2023
Number of pages:  156
Size: 210 × 279 mm
Language: in Czech, in English
ISBN: 978-80-7010-191-9

Editor: Helena Musilová
Texts: Helena Musilová, Martin Nitsche a Josefína Formanová, Josef Pleskot
Photos: Matěj Bárta, Kateřina Fialová, Michal Hančovský, Hana Špačková, archiv Jitky Svobodové
Translation: Jean‑Gaspard Páleníček
Editing of texts: Ondřej Krochmalný
Graphic design: Matěj Bárta
Production: Anna Kulíčková
Print: H.R.G. spol. s.r.o.

The Prague City Gallery has is introducing the long-awaited retrospective exhibition of painter and creator of drawings and spatial objects Jitka Svobodová, one of the most authentic artists of Czech and international art. Since the mid-1960s, when she entered the art scene, she has been systematically exploring the reality she sees, transforming it into distinctive works of art in a unique – and for the viewer often unsettling – way. Jitka Svobodová started out as a painter of abstract landscapes and natural elements. In the first half of the 1970s, she decided to abandon painting and devote herself to drawing; through this medium, in flat and spatial creations, she depicted both everyday objects, constructions, various types of connections, as well as phenomena such as smoke or the movements at the surface of the sea. In her work, she has touched on fundamental issues related to both creation itself and the process of knowledge. The exhibition and the catalogue (the exhibition guide) present her work from the period of her studies at the Academy of Fine Arts, which she graduated from in 1967, to her works from 2023. The architect of the exhibition was Josef Pleskot, and the catalogue is based on photographs from the installation, showing a remarkable dialogue between those two personalities. Josef Pleskot is also the author a text in which he describes his creative approach.

In addition to texts by curator Helena Musilová, the catalogue also includes an original essay by philosophers Martin Nitsche and Josefina Formanová entitled Half-shrouded windows of the phenomenological: Jitka Svobodová as a philosopher, in which they reflect on Svobodová’s work from the perspectives of thought, look and experienced reality.

Jitka Svobodová graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague (1961-1967 Monumental Painting Studio, 1973-1976 Restoration Studio). She worked as a freelance restorer and artist. After the Velvet Revolution she was appointed professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in 1991 and until 2012 she headed the studio – school of drawing. She has prepared several solo exhibitions in Czech Republic and abroad and participated in many collective exhibitions. Her work is represented in important public and private collections.

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