Běla Kolářová

Exhibition catalogue published by Raven Row, 2013

Texts by Karel Císař, Matthew S. Witkovsky, Alice Motard, and Marie Klimešová

Graphic design: John Morgan studio

English

16 x 24 cm, 118 p.

Catalogue of the first posthumous retrospective of the work of Czech artist Běla Kolářová (1923–2010) at Raven Row in London.

“From her trademark ‘artificial negatives,’ ‘light drawings,’ and ‘derealised portraits’ to her assemblages and collages, Běla Kolářová pioneered an art based on intimate objects often associated with domesticity and the feminine. The works on display span Kolářová’s career to include documentary photographs from the late fifties, camera-less experiments, ‘arranged photographs’ of objects and hair and assemblages from the sixties, as well as make-up drawings and assemblages from the seventies and eighties.

While rooted in the context of the Cold War and exile, Běla Kolářová’s practice is also closely linked to the life of her husband, the influential artist and poet Jiří Kolář, whose work overshadowed her own until its recent rediscovery. Despite the difficulties of exhibiting in her own country, she was able to develop a unique body of work, both formally and conceptually. As this exhibition demonstrates, its legacy to the history of art—on both sides of the Iron Curtain—is anything but modest, unlike its materials and its author’s personality.” (Raven Row)

I proofread all the texts and edited the conversation between the curators.