Exhibition "Zdeněk Dvořák – the Forgotten Abstractionist"

Zdeněk Dvořák (1897-1943) was an extraordinary figure in Czech abstraction of the 1930s and one of the many more or less unknown participants of the anti-fascist resistance, who should not be forgotten. The exhibition emphasizes these aspects of his life.

The work of sculptor Zdeněk Dvořák has not yet been comprehensively addressed. The same is true for the structure and activities of the significant resistance organization National Revolutionary Committee of Intelligence, to which Dvořák belonged, and whose other prominent members, such as Vladislav Vančura, Pavel Kropáček, or Bedřich Václavek, paid for it with their lives. He perished in the Auschwitz concentration camp.



The impetus for the monographic processing of Dvořák’s work was his previously unknown written legacy, discovered years ago in the Literary Archive of the National Museum. In addition to biographical and other authorial archival materials, it contains nearly complete photographic documentation of works, as well as a collection of nine exceptionally interesting drawing foundations for unrealized abstract reliefs and a number of sketches. This finding enabled a holistic view of Dvořák’s work, including the identification of most of the now-missing pieces, as well as evaluating it as an artistic performance that, in its focus and inventiveness, has no equivalent in Czech abstraction of the first half of the 20th century, apart from František Kupka or František Foltýn.

ASGK design is the author of the architectural and graphic concept, including the actual realization of the exhibition. The embodiment of the architectural concept represented a challenging task of presenting diverse elements in the form of sculptures, reliefs, drawing foundations, paintings, photo documentation, and written texts. The resulting solution presents the work and life of this extraordinary figure of Czech abstraction of the 1930s in an interesting and clear manner and sensitively complements the magical spaces of the Hvězda summer palace.

Curators of the exhibition: PhDr. Hana Rousová, Mgr. Bronislava Rokytová