The exhibition surface On the Wall, which is part of the permanent exhibition 20th-Century Czech Art and Its Labels, is dedicated to styles, motifs, groups and artists that have remained outside the mainstream narrative of modern art. These works document the multi-layered character of the era’s artistic production and remind us of the limitations of the art-historical “sieve” that all works of art must pass through before they can become a part of codified art history.
Bibliophile magazine Moderní revue was founded in October 1894 by Arnošt Procházka and Jiří Karásek ze Lvovic and sought to be a platform for the emerging generation. Nevertheless, its contributors were primarily inclined towards Decadent and Symbolist art (later also Catholic modernism). The exhibition presents artists such as F. Bílek, F. Kobliha, J. Konůpek, T. F. Šimon and J. Štursa. The members of this circle were strongly influenced by literature and philosophy and emphasized the symbolic meaning of their paintings’ subject matter. Artists variously embraced and moved away from these movements over the course of the magazine’s thirty-year existence, and so there exists no definitive list of the circle’s members.
