Location. A historical building dating back to the 15th century, located by the Old Town Square. Prague City Gallery was given use of and responsibility for the Golden Ring House in 1990. Both the wider and professional public can see not only exhibitions here but also attend a reading room on the 2nd floor, where they can in presentio research professional literature, an extensive range of exhibition catalogues and professional magazines related to the field of fine arts.
Curator. PhDr. Pavlína Morganová, Ph.D., a Czech curator (since 2001) and lecturer(since 1997)
Artists.Veronika Bromová, Milena Dopitová, Lenka Klodová, Martina Klouzová-Niubó, Zdena Kolečková, Alena Kotzmannová, Markéta Othová, Míla Preslová, Elen Řádová, Štěpánka Šimlová, Kateřina Šedá, Michaela Thelenová, Markéta Vaňková, and Kateřina Vincourová
Until 1989, women were present on the Czech art scene more often than not as solitary figures, eclipsed by their male counterparts. In the course of the 1990s came a rapid succession of several generations of women artists asserting themselves. Their output brought in new subjects and a new visual aspect of art work, but also a previously unwitnessed enhancement of the status of women in the domestic art community.
The exhibition In a Skirt – Sometimes / Art of the 1990s is an attempt at a retrospective survey documenting the aforementioned shift in Czech art of the 1990s through select works by women artists. It is accompanied by a publication documenting the participants´ output during the period from 1990 to the present day, and setting it within a broader sociological and, most notably, art-historical context.
Personal Opinion. This collective exhibition certainly has a string effect on its viewers as it almost attacks with the variety of styles, forms and concepts behind the works, as well as the impulsive artistic personae of the female art scene of the 1990s. The artworks selected for this show are strong and thought-provoking, certainly different from male art, but also very disturbing (as anything that comes from the 1990s). Today some of these works appear to be too explicit in their need to prove something, but thinking back in time it is fare to say, someone had to claim the female part of the art. The amount of emotion and expression that some of these works have is almost unbearable and must have produced a shocking impression on the spectators back in the days. However, it would be nice to have these works positioned next to male artworks, as the isolated female show has a strange effect in the second decade of 2000: begs the question if the curator feels that women are still unrepresented in the Czech art scene or prefers female artists over male herself.
As far as the exhibition and its organization goes, I must say this one is broad and dispersed, starting from a narrow theme it bursts out into a labyrinth of personalities, each responding to an inner urge of expression or an outer environment. The art space of the Golden Ring House with the spiral staircases adds to the complexity of the topic and the overall frustration.
For a person who has never consciously experienced female art this exhibition is a must-see: you may hate it or love it, but you will sure remember it.
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