The vernissage of the exhibition Professor and Student: Max Švabinský and Helena Salichová will take place at the Gong Gallery in Dolní Vítkovice on 7 January 2025 at 17:30.
The paths of these two exceptional artists intersected in 1920 when Helena Salichová began studying at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, where Max Švabinský served as rector. Max Švabinský, a representative of the generation that laid the foundations of Czech modern art, contributed to the visibility of Czech art in the world. The exhibition will showcase the author's portraits of significant personalities of his time. Nudes, which were for him not only studies of physical beauty but also expressions of inner harmony.
Helena Salichová, a prominent Silesian artist, focused on social art. In her works, she primarily depicted everyday life in Silesia, with the series Silesian Sibyls capturing elderly women from Kyjovice and Polanka. The collection Building Silesia depicts war damage in Silesian towns and villages. A dominant part of the exhibition is the series Shapes Hidden in Wood, which she worked on from the 1960s until nearly the end of her life. It is the most extensive series of woodcuts, in which she brings to life the lines of natural materials and, with extraordinary imagination, finds shapes in them, giving them new expression through subtle interventions. The entire series Zlín, commissioned by Tomáš Baťa, will also be presented for the first time, which has never been exhibited as a whole before.
We warmly invite you to visit this unique exhibition, which will highlight the connection between two exceptional creators and their influence on Czech art. The curators of the exhibition are Jan Světlík, Zdeněk Sklenář, and Petr Pavliňák.
