Karel Kunc – Čekatel at Cafe Lajka

Location. Cafe Lajka is a local cafe in Prague 7, not far from Veletržní Palác , it has  a small  red-brick cellar exhibition space that can host solo shows of the emerging artists (the solo-cellar-shows).

Curator. not mentioned anywhere, so my guess is Karel himself.

Artist. Karel Kunc studied in the studio of Spatial Forms headed by Jiří Příhoda at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague. Space plays a significant role in the implementation of his work.

Personal Opinion. Going to a solo cellar show is always a one of a kind experience (despite the fact that there are usually a number of them being open at the same time in Prague), anyhow it usually involves closer communication with the people who work at a given cafe: you need to come and ask about the show, state your intention to see it, and if you are lucky the show will still be there. In the case of this show nobody has requested to see it before us, so the bartender went down to switch the lights on for us. What concerns the exhibition itself, there were no texts whatsoever and it took me a while to find anything about the artist online. The title of the exhibition reads trainee in English, though I cannot say for sure how are these works, connected to the topic, but if I may guess, it is somehow connected to the concept of learning to be an artist and wavering of it: the paper is so thin and the movement of the inked brush has to be precise and accurate to produce such works;  I might suggest, Karel had to learn and experiment to achieve given results. It is minimalism, it is abstraction, very similar to many other works but in his case the communication of medium and technique are almost entrancing. I would gladly visit a vernissage to ask Karel, what it is all about.

Milan Grygar: The Visual and the Acoustic at Municipal Library

Location. The Municipal Library of Prague, situated in Mariánské Square, was built between 1925 and 1928 according to the design of architect František Roith, student of the professor of the Vienna Academy and foremost architect, Otto Wagner. The extensive exhibition spaces on the 2nd floor were acquired by Prague City Gallery in 1992.

Curator. Hana Lavrová

Artist. In his work, Milan Grygar has continuously focused on the relationship between image, sound and space. There, his concept is thoroughly original and indeed, unique in the context of contemporary art. Rather than relating to the domestic art scene, it brings his idiom close to the current trends prevailing in European and American art.

The current retrospective shows Grygar’s output on a time-scale ranging from the mid-1960s, when he fi rst linked the realization of an art work with spatial attributes of sound, to the present stage, during which his individual way of combining visual and acoustic aspects of art work has been acquiring new dimensions.

 

The first two exhibition halls are large and dramatically lit by the pale white light. Oversized paintings on the walls initially look like mere decoration. But when one stands between them, he understands why Grygar talks about linking sound, image and space. Milan Grygar’s intention is to evoke the idea that each two-dimensional or three-dimensional object must be set in a particular environment and must also evoke the idea of ​​a certain sound. It does not matter if the tones are real, or is created by our imagination. It is essential to connect all three components into a single percept.

Personal Opinion. This exhibition is a rather volumetric retrospective of Grygar that fully embodies the acoustic, visual and spatial components of his art, providing a dynamic motion from one hall to another, developing the concept of his abstract sound painting not through explanatory text, but through the dialogue between the works of art. It should be noted that Hana has shown some creative approach to the placement of works of art taking advantage of the great empty space of  the Municipal Library gallery: the exhibition has vital powers in it despite the fact that abstract art and minimalism may easily fall into static. The absence of explanatory text for the spectators who are new to modern and contemporary art is compensated by the aesthetic quality of Grygar’s works.