The Václav Havel Library is presenting works thatJan Bačkovský has produced this year. They are large-format oil paintings that produce a strongly elemental impression via expressive gestic brushstrokes. In recent years, the painter’s artistic signature has stabilised around a system of vertical and horizontal strokes that intersect and cross, crashing into and supporting one another. It is, in my view, just in these overlaps and in what takes place between them that the magic of his pictures lies. Sometimes their layout conjures an impression that is almost harmonious, in a manner similar to Renaissance works; at other times their apparent randomness and expansiveness capture the world’s ungraspable nature. Clear colours give the canvasses a strong expressiveness that radiates from them, creating an almost physical sensation of taste. Their size also makes a physical impression on the viewer. As Mark Rothko said: “To paint a small picture is to place yourself outside your experience, to look upon an experience as a stereopticon view or with a reducing glass. However you paint the larger picture, you are in it.” And that is the main strength of Bačkovský’s paintings.

Bačkovský himself speaks about his motives for creativity as a distraction from everyday reality. He says: “I don’t know if my paintings differ at all. I’m always painting one picture. This personal position shaped by a large canvas is, from today’s predominantly scientifically descriptive view of the world, hugely liberating.”

9.00 and 11.00

THE WORLD BELONGS TO US

Morning for students and schools.

Factory for Illusions (directed by Jiří Weiss, 1938, 10 min.)

The World Belongs to Us (directed by Martin Frič, 1937, 90 min.)

15.00

KRISTIAN

Just for today…

The War for Health (directed by Jan Libora, 1938, 10 min.)

Kristian (directed by Martin Frič, 1939, 92 min.)

17.00

FROM SATURDAY TO SUNDAY

70 years of the National Film Archive NFA

We Live in Prague (directed by Otakar Vávra, 1934, 11 min.)

From Saturday to Sunday (directed by Gustav Machatý, 1931, 67 min.)

19.00

BON VOYAGE

Ceremonial presentation of the book “Miloš Havel – Czech Film Magnate”

Captive Voice (directed by Jiří Lehovec, 1939, 11 min.)

Bon Voyage (directed by Otakar Vávra, 1943, 90 min.)

This is Lucernafilm! is organised by the Václav Havel Library, the National Film Archive and Lucerna Palace.

Admission to screenings CZK 30.

Screenings:

Fog (directed by Radúz Činčera, 1966, 28 min.)

An Evening with the Theatre on the Balustrade(directed by Věra Jordanova, 1968, 103 min.)

Playwright of More than one Generation(directed by Jindřich Procházka, 1999, 21 min.)

Igor Korpaczewski (born Prague, 1959), who studied at Prague’s Academy of Fine Arts between 1983 and 1989, ranks among the most unmistakable solitary artists of the ‘80s generation. He focuses systematically on the different options offered by figural depiction, which occasionally results in work that is even conceptual. Operating under the pseudonyms KW and Q, he has taken part in many projects, both at home and abroad, since the 1980s. For two decades he has been an assistant at Jiří Sopek’s studio at the Academy of Fine Arts, where his marked influence on a younger generation of artists can be seen.

At Galerie Montmartre, Igor Korpaczewski is presenting paintings from the last 20 years that reflect the title Personal Apocalypse. Silhouettes of individual figures run through all of his canvasses – simple motifs of figures shut off in their own world and space. Though they may be depictions of concrete people, they do not aim to be “realistic” portraits. Figures, living in their own universe and transfixed via their own suffering to the thread of life, look outwards. Their stories, hidden behind the pictures, create a mirror for the viewer, while their general types and unstated roles allow for self-reflection within the “I–you” relationship shorn of a symbolic context.

Another very strong aspect of the pictures is their formal expression, with Korpaczewski moving between two distinct poles: the strong modelling illusion and elements of abstraction leading to surface expression. Despite the tension of various stains, colours and rhythms, together they create a harmonious whole. Through minor details in a figure’s face, for instance, Korpaczewski allows us to look into their (or our?) interior.

In Greek, apocalypse means revelation or disclosure. In this context, the Korpaczewski exhibition can be understood as a metaphor for the struggle for survival in everyday life. The possibility of detecting leaks into our invented worlds; of looking reality in the eye.

In that respect the words of Václav Boštík, which for Igor Korpaczewski also apply to his work, can be quoted here: “Pictures are just traces along the path that we’ve been down. They are a sign of the work on ourselves. They are questions, or answers to the questions we have posed.”

At Galerie Montmartre, Igor Korpaczewski is presenting paintings from the last 20 years that reflect the title Personal Apocalypse. Silhouettes of individual figures run through all of his canvasses – simple motifs of figures shut off in their own world and space. Though they may be depictions of concrete people, they do not aim to be “realistic” portraits. Figures, living in their own universe and transfixed via their own suffering to the thread of life, look outwards. Their stories, hidden behind the pictures, create a mirror for the viewer, while their general types and unstated roles allow for self-reflection within the “I–you” relationship shorn of a symbolic context.

Another very strong aspect of the pictures is their formal expression, with Korpaczewski moving between two distinct poles: the strong modelling illusion and elements of abstraction leading to surface expression. Despite the tension of various stains, colours and rhythms, together they create a harmonious whole. Through minor details in a figure’s face, for instance, Korpaczewski allows us to look into their (or our?) interior.

In Greek, apocalypse means revelation or disclosure. In this context, the Korpaczewski exhibition can be understood as a metaphor for the struggle for survival in everyday life. The possibility of detecting leaks into our invented worlds; of looking reality in the eye.

In that respect the words of Václav Boštík, which for Igor Korpaczewski also apply to his work, can be quoted here: “Pictures are just traces along the path that we’ve been down. They are a sign of the work on ourselves. They are questions, or answers to the questions we have posed.”