Databáze uměleckých výstav v českých zemích 1820 – 1950

Zdeněk Rykr’s solo exhibition entitled Away! was held in an empty shop in the Dunaj department store at the end of 1934. Rykr organized the show himself and, unlike his previous exhibitions, it did not take place in an established gallery. For the most part, Rykr presented his assemblages and paintings of smaller formats, in which he openly embraced Surrealism. The terse title – Away! – was an allusion to one of the paintings depicting an abandoned railway station waiting room. But it also referred to Rykr’s unusual approach to the artistic medium in the assemblages he presented at the exhibition. [Lahoda 2000, p. 103]

The catalogue listed 27 items, but some entries covered several artworks under a single number. For example, seven unspecified works appeared under the title The Netherlands. The paintings at the exhibition included In Fairly New Houses, Diabolo, At Twenty-Fifth Hour, and The Great Park. Although these paintings resonated less with the reviewers than the installations, the critics commented on their deliberately primitive form, a feature that did not always receive a positive evaluation. The assemblages, such as Suitcase, Glory, and Revolving Stage, composed of banal objects and waste materials, were even cruder than the paintings, thus illustrating the exhibition’s goals formulated in the catalogue by Jindřich Chalupecký. Here, Chalupecký emphasized the need to break free from established artistic categories and judgments and demanded that art “tells me something about myself: this is you.” [Chalupecký 1934, n. pag.]

The exhibition received contradictory reviews. Some critics saw a pervasive pessimism in Rykr’s works: for example, the reviewer in Ranní noviny wrote about a “bitter nihilistic mood.” [E. K. 1934, p. 6] The assemblages generally met with a negative response, but the critics appreciated the originality of the show installed in an empty store. Many of them discussed the intimate character of the exhibited works. In his review for Lidové noviny, Karel Čapek wrote: “I wouldn’t say these are works to showcase in public;” “It would suit them the best if they were discovered somewhere in an abandoned room.” [Čapek 1934, p. 9] Jaromír Pečírka also commented on the installations in this vein, describing them, despite the catalogue text, as mute curiosities. He believed that the works’ private nature presented an obstacle to deciphering their meaning, as people hesitated to interfere with other people’s innermost feelings. [Pečírka 1934, p. 8] 

Although Rykr’s works largely met with misunderstanding, Jindřich Chalupecký considered his assemblages exceptional in their time and saw the show as one of the most significant manifestations of Surrealism in Czechoslovakia. [Chalupecký 1980, p. 23] Because the Rykr exhibition took place shortly before the First Exhibition of the Surrealist Group in Czechoslovakia, it can be regarded as an early presentation of this movement in Czechoslovakia.

Magdalena Dědičová

Works Cited

Čapek 1934: Jč [Josef Čapek], Několik prací Zdeňka Rykra, Lidové noviny XXXXII, 1934, no. 630, 15. 12. p. 9

Chalupecký 1934: Jindřich Chalupecký, Pryč, in: Zdeněk Rykr (exh. cat.), Praha 1934, n. pag.

Chalupecký 1980: Jindřich Chalupecký, O dada a surrealismu a českém umění, in: Jazzpetit II, 1980, no. 2

E. K. 1934: E. K. Umění. Z. Rykr, Národní politika (afternoon edition) LII, 1934, 20. 12., no. 349, p. 6

Lahoda 2000: Vojtěch Lahoda, Elegie avatgardy, in: idem (ed.), Zdenek Rykr 1900–1940, elegie avantgardy, Praha 2000, pp. 9–193

Pečírka 1934: Jaromír Pečírka, Kunst. Die Ausstellung Zdeněk Rykrs im Palais „Dunaj“, Prager Presse XIV, 1934, no. 346, 19. 12., p. 8.

Further Reading

Jindřich Chalupecký, O Zdeňku Rykrovi, Výtvarné umění XIV, 1964, no. 8, pp. 370–378

Vojtěch Lahoda, Zdenek Rykr a továrna na čokoládu, Praha 2016

Archival Sources

Institute of Art History CAS, Department of Documentation, fonds Zdeněk Rykr, materiály k výstavě Zdeňka Rykra 1934 [documents concerning the exhibition of Zdeněk Rykr 1934], box IV/2 vol. 12

Anonymous author, Výstavy, Lidové noviny XXXXII, 1934, no. 639, 20. 12., p. 8 

Anonymous author, Umění. Výstava obrazů Zd. Rykra, Národní politika LII, 1934, no. 334, 4. 12., p. 7

Anonymous author, Nové výstavy a aktuality, Polední list VIII, 1934, no. 334, 1. 12