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Czech Art 1980-2010. Texts and Documents

Jiří Ševčík, Pavlína Morganová, Terezie Nekvindová and Dagmar Svatošová (eds.),
Praha 2011, 980 pp.

The anthology Czech Art 1980-2010. Texts and Documents focuses on formative moments and processes of the past thirty years. The examined period is marked by several critical points that transformed Czech art forms and fine-art language as well as concepts of culture and society. The selected texts and documents are arranged into eleven thematic chapters that refer to the various discourses of the period and long-term trends creating certain tensions of opinions on the Czech art scene. Manifestoes and program texts, theoretical and critical essay, introductions to exhibition catalogues and some contemplations of artists are presented here. This area of the fine arts is furthered framed by studies from philosophy, sociology, history and politology that comprise an important context background. Texts by art critics and theoreticians from abroad complement them. The textual part of the anthology is accompanied by an extensive chronology capturing important moments of the Czech art world, of the cultural policy of the time and political history of the entire period. A construed history of Czech fine arts, this anthology provides readers with one of the possible variations of reading these transformational socio-cultural processes over the period of1980-2010. The anthology Czech Art 1980-2010, Texts and Documents follows up on the AVU Research Center's prior publication Czech Art 1938-1989, Programs, Critical Texts, Documents (Academia, Prague 2001) and its German version Utopien & Konflikte. Dokumente und Manifeste zur Tschechischen Kunst 1938-1989 (Hatje Cantz, Ostfildern 2007).

The book will be available from the online bookstore at www.kosmas.cz or at VVP AVU.