Czech Update

Another Czech painting sold for record sum

Dominik Lukeš — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 16:23:57 +0100

Yet another Czech (mostly) pre-war artist's painting was sold this week for a record sum. This time it was the abstract artist and cubist František Kupka. read more »

Josef Čapek's painting brings in record sum

Dominik Lukeš — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 08:33:04 +0100

Czech art doesn't often make the news but this one's certainly worth noticing.

Czech Josef Capek's painting auctioned for record 12 million read more »

Dictionary of Czech culture

Dominik Lukeš — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 21:56:48 +0100

The Amazon reviewer got it right! read more »

Jára Cimrman to bring new Czech heaven

Dominik Lukeš — Sun, 24 Dec 2006 12:53:23 +0000

Cimrmanův divadelní kšaft - www.lidovky.cz Zdeněk Svěrák a Ladislav Smoljak chystají patnáctou hru, kterou by chtěli oslavit podzimní čtyřicítku Divadla Járy Cimrmana. Nová hra by se mohla jmenovat České nebe s podtitulem Cimrmanův dramatický kšaft.

It is characteristic of many things in the Czech psyche that the greatest Czech of all time [also here], as measured by Czech TV's remake of BBC's 100 Greatest Brittons, never existed. It was Jára Cimrman who will celebrate 40 years of non-existence next year. And his 'discoverers', now revered Czech cultural icons themselves, have just announced they are planning to uncover the 15th lost play by this intellectual giant. The play may be called 'Czech Heaven' and with any luck will open in the fall of 2007. This is big news! Roughly on the scale of announcing the new Star Wars. Unlike the Star Wars, though, this is unlikely to disappoint. Want know why? Read this account by an American of the Czech hero's appeal who sums it up pretty well: read more »

Interview with Czech anti-Santa campaigner

Dominik Lukeš — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 10:12:06 +0000

"Alien" figure of Santa Claus encroaching on Czech traditions, says anti-Santa campaign - 05-12-2006 - Radio Prague With Christmas fast approaching, the figure of Santa Claus is to be seen all over the place in the Czech Republic - in decorations, on shopping bags and in store windows. But Santa is a relatively new phenomenon in this country. A similar figure, Mikulas (St Nicholas), visits children on December 5, while presents are delivered on December 24 by Ježíšek, the Baby Jesus. Some Czechs resent the omnipresence of Santa Claus, among them the Creative Copywriters Club; they have set up a website with a simple message: Santa go home! I spoke to the group's David Konig at a Prague shopping mall.

Unbearable Lightness of Being in Czech after 20 Years

Dominik Lukeš — Fri, 10 Nov 2006 16:28:05 +0000

Kundera masterpiece becomes Czech bestseller after 20 year wait Czech writer Milan Kundera's most famous novel "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" has become a best seller in his homeland after a 20-year wait for its general release in his native language.

Yes, it is true, Nesnesitelná lehkost bytí, perhaps the best-known book written in Czech, was published for the first time in the Czech Republic this year more than 20 years after its original publication in France. read more »

On the importance of Václavs

Dominik Lukeš — Fri, 10 Nov 2006 15:58:22 +0000

Another political popularity poll showed that the last two presidents are considered the most important politicians of the last 16 years by the Czech populace:

Havel, Klaus, Dostál most respected Czech politicians -- poll Prague- Former president Václav Havel, current President Václav Klaus and former culture minister Pavel Dostál, who died last year, have contributed to the country most of all during the past 16 years since the collapse of communism, according to a poll conducted by STEM and released to ČTK today.

For some reason it reminded me of this line from an old poem by Bob Holman:

Bob Holman: Poems 1989
It's 1990 read more »

Czech jazz

Dominik Lukeš — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 09:16:08 +0000

Emil Viklicky: Patriarch of Czech Jazz Piano When most American jazz buffs think of the Czech Republic, they probably think of bassists George Mraz and Miroslav Vitous or keyboardist Jan Hammer. However, Europeans knowledgeable about the same topic probably think of Emil Viklicky, the acknowledged “Patriarch of Czech Jazz Piano.”

I was recently asked if there are any well-known Czech musicians along the lines of Abba or Tatu. To that the answer is no (or at least not that I know). However, there a read more »

Havel Festival in the US

Dominik Lukeš — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 17:54:17 +0100

United Stages Havel Festival October 5th, 2006 - December 4th, 2006 Ohio Theater, Brick Theater, others Ohio Theater 66 Wooster St UNTITLED THEATER COMPANY #61 Synopsis Tix Info Vaclav Havel Festival In honor of Vaclav Havel's 70th birthday and his concurrent residency at Columbia University, Untitled Theater Company #61 and other artists and companies from New York and around the country have come together to present, for the first time anywhere, the complete plays of Vaclav Havel—noted playwright and former President of the Czech Republic. With one world premiere, four English language premieres and five other new translations, this is a must-see event for fans of Havel, political theater, absurdist theater, or simply theater in general. read more »

Searching for lost times in Czech history

Dominik Lukeš — Mon, 09 Oct 2006 10:52:33 +0100

Hledání ztraceného času především fotografické fragmenty naší nedávné minulosti míněné jako upřímná pocta stejnojmenému televiznímu pořadu filmového historika Karla Čáslavského

Photographic evidence of places and artifacts of special cultural or historical importance to Czechs. This is a very interesting site (created mostly in 1999 - I recommend that anybody interested in recent (last 100 years) Czech history and culture sit down with a Czech and has a conversation about what these things mean to them. read more »

St Vitus Cathedral returned to Church ownership

Dominik Lukeš — Fri, 08 Sep 2006 21:45:27 +0100

St.Vitus now in Church ownership - 08-09-2006 - Radio Prague One of Prague's most visited tourist attractions has changed ownership. For 13 years the Roman Catholic Church sought to regain ownership of Prague's famous St. Vitus Cathedral, located in the Prague Castle compound and administered by the state. In June of this year the Prague City Court ruled that St. Vitus belongs to the Church. This week the Prague Castle Administration officially handed over its management to the Roman Catholic Church.

An important landmark that can't be missed by any visitors to Prague. This article outlines a bit of its more recent history and present.
read more »

Czech photography and visual arts overview

Dominik Lukeš — Mon, 04 Sep 2006 08:22:42 +0100

Prague-Photography Guide Only a few European towns have changed so often and so radically their position as Prague. The seat of emperors Charles IV and Rudolph II, on whose courts leading world artists were acting, was during a 300-year long-rule of the Habsburg dynasty only a provincial shadow of Vienna. At the beginning of the 20th century, it became, however, an important centre of artistic avant-guarde as well. The cubism started to gain ground in Prague only little later than in Paris and its representatives created, in Bohemia, quite a unique cubistic architecture not existing anywhere else in the world. František Kupka was painting some of his first abstract pictures as early as around 1910 in Prague and there was hardly anywhere else such a breeding-ground for the surrealism as in the Czech metropolis (up to the present day, a surrealistic revue „Analogon" is being published there). Happy years of a prosperous and democratic Czechoslovakia, founded in 1918, lasted, however, only two decades and were followed by a Nazi occupation in 1939 and by a Communist putsch nine years later. A totalitarian Communist regime brought Czechoslovakia into a cultural isolation. The country managed to get rid of it only a little and only for a short time during the period of a political liberalization in the 60ies, when, in the international context, representatives of a new wave of a Czechoslovak cinematography shined up - Miloš Forman, Věra Chytilová and Jiří Menzel or playwrights Milan Kundera, Josef Škvorecký and Václav Havel. But Soviet tanks ended bloodily a relative freedom of the Prague spring in August 1968 and introduced two decades of the so-called normalization, when, under the rule of one party, there were so many obligations and so little was allowed. Only after the Velvet Revolution, in November 1989, the surrounding world started to discover gradually qualities of the Czech art, almost forgotten and held in secrecy, which, in a short euphoria, after the fall of the Berlin Wall, participated in several important film and theatre festivals or was presented in prestigious galleries and museums. But the interest for works from countries of the former Soviet bloc did not last for a long time and was replaced soon by enthusiasm for creation from China, Japan or Latin America. Nowadays, the Czech art gains ground in Western Europe or in the USA with difficulty and only sporadically. Maybe the photography succeeds best.

A detailed overview of the state of Czech photography that also summarizes the state of Czech art in general. Art-lovers may particularly enjoy descriptions of Prague Art Galleries. This post also made me realize that there is no Art category on Czech Update, so I've added one. If anyone would like to be an art correspondent to Czech Update, please let me know. read more »

Dudy - the Czech Bagpipes

Dominik Lukeš — Mon, 27 Mar 2006 04:30:14 +0100

Temple Daily Telegram Bagpipes do not originate from Scotland alone, however. The instrument also has a rich tradition in the Bohemian region of the Czech Republic. Two men who explored that tradition created a documentary film that traces the history and the future of the Bohemian bagpipe. Producer and co-director Jeffrey Brown and bagpiper Mike Cwack presented the movie, “Call of Dudy: Bohemian Bagpipes Across Borders” at Seaton Star Hall Saturday afternoon.