Trauma / Distress / Ecstasy / Emptiness. Formulas of Pathos 1900–2018

The term, however, may be used more generally to capture the expressional repertoire of the (depicted) human body. Since the end of the 19th century, at the beginnings of modernism, the repertoire of the formula of pathos has expanded extraordinarily and the artistic intention has been to find new ways of representing mental states and emotions as an image. The exhibition attempts to define various tendencies or levels to which formulas of pathos have developed, and are framed by  the title: a modern continuation of the representation of traumatic and excited emotional states, a representation of distress and anxiety, and modern and current “antiformulas of pathos”; which refers to an absence or deficit of emotion, rather than a surplus.  The exhibition attempts to confirm the precondition that the expressive structures of the human body (as well as the emotional states to which they refer) are culturally conditioned – on the one hand art captures their transforming positions, while simultaneously co-creating them on the other.

These artworks encompass the entire spectrum of media including photography and video, naturally with more emphasis on sculpture. The exhibits comprise both well-known and frequently exhibited works, presented here in a new context, as well as relatively less prominent works of generally contemporary authors.

Artists represented at the exhibition:

Painting and graphics: Felix Jenewein, Bohumil Kubišta, Antonín Procházka, August Brömse, Maxim Kopf, František Bílek, František Nechleba, Václav Hejna, Josef Liesler, František Foltýn, Viktor Planckh, Erwin Muller, Karel Černý, Karel Holan, Miloslav Holý, Eugen von Kahler, Oswald Voh, Jan Kotík, Valentin Držkovic, Vlasta Vostřebalová-Fischerová, Rudolf Michalik, Arnošt Paderlík, František Ronovský, F. X. Naske, Vratislav Nechleba, Karel Myslbek, Ferdiš Duša, selected authors of Socialist Realism, and others.

Foreign authors: Vincent Hložník, Karl Hubbuch, Otto Dix, Käthe Kollwitz, Hans Balluschek, Grethe Jurgens, Anton Raderscheidt, Max Lachnit, Enckell Magnus, Otto Griebel

Sculpture: František Bílek, Quido Kocián, Mary Durasová, Karel Lidický, Karel Mařatka, Jaroslav Horejc, Jan Štursa

Contemporary painting and sculpture: Josef Bolf, Ivana Lomová, Daniel Pitín, Jan Poupě, Igor Korpaczewski, Barbora Myslikovjanova, Kateřina Komm, Muntean a Rosenblum, Berlinde de Bruyckere, Volker Stelzmann, Christian Macketanz, Olivier Masmonteil, Alexander Tinei, Jan De Maesschalck, Anne-Mie Van Kerckhoven

Photography: František Drtikol, Dana Kyndrová, Ivan Pinkava, Dita Pepe, Filip Singer, Jan Šibík