There are two schools of contemporary art: that which is intended to be beautiful, and that which rejects or transcends beauty in an effort to push the boundaries of what art is. In a wide-ranging show at the Rudolfinum, Curator Simona Vladíková has gathered the work of 18 emerging and established Czech artists in order to explore the origins of beauty and rediscover its meaning in a contemporary context. The exhibit "concentrates on pictures in captivating the attention of the viewer and spurring him or her to a strong emotional reaction," Vladíková says in an introductory statement. She expands the definition of "picture" to include not only painting and photography, but installation, sculpture and animation.

These captivating ideas are well worth exploring. The trouble is most of the pieces in the show don't fit the stated theme. Take Milan Cais' installation of an American astronaut floating weightlessly while impaled on the Washington Monument. Although nicely executed, the piece fits more into the category of conceptual art than pictorial beauty. And Jaroslav Koza's sleek rocking chairs and "Proboscis" sound speakers seem to be about touch and sound rather than vision.

Even many of the paintings seem far more conceptual than beautiful, such as Viktor Pivovarov's "Eidos" (Greek for "idea") series featuring a wooden toy man in various situations. David Adamec's desert landscapes and scenes of parked trucks combine a hyper-realistic precision with a flatness that is more disturbing than pleasing to the eye.

However, beauty is always subjective, and in that sense there are some beautiful pieces. Michal Nesázal's icy, iridescent dreamscapes, where trees are elliptical and hills are half-circles placed with geometric precision, impart a feeling of otherworldly calm. Ivana Lomová's portraits of her daughter, in exaggerated perspective and precise brushstrokes, show the beauty of youth in its exuberance, introspection and optimism.

While one might not expect a video game to make the highlights list, the popular Internet Flash game Samorost by young artist Jakub Dvorský boasts some gorgeous imagery. Using digital macro photographs of trees, stones and plants, Dvorský creates a world inhabited by tree creatures and ultra-cute animated humanoids. Samorost is more interactive art than a traditional video game.

Notable for his original use of materials is František Matoušek, who makes acrylic paintings on frayed denim, such as Pop Art–inspired portraits of women with men's names. Singer Dan Barta presents photographs of dragonflies that capture the delicate insect in a split-second in time. Although most seem more suited to an issue of National Geographic, those in which the dragonfly becomes abstracted are quite successful.

Perhaps the most sublime work in the show is also the most grotesque: Lukáš Rittstein's "Dirty Heavens" objects, made from large fiberglass shells containing rocks and mud. Rather like the work of František Skála, they invite the idea that the grotesque is beautiful. Here, the curator may be presenting works that are intentionally unbeautiful in order to challenge our personal definitions of beauty. If that's the case, however, the point could have been made more boldly. There are too many middle-of-the-road pieces that fall somewhere between the beautiful and the grotesque, not taking a stand on the subject either way.