The Prague Post
September 8th, 2008
Endowment Fund     Business Listings ONLINE      Reservations      Classifieds    Subscriptions
Hotel Prague Centre

Home » Archives » Night & Day

A record-setting show

Guma Guar 'liberates' the work of Milan Knížák
Gallery Review | Search restaurants | Archives

By Tony Ozuna
For The Prague Post
February 27th, 2008 issue

COURTESY PHOTO
Distressed vinyl lines the windows of this stinging satirical swipe set in close proximity to Veletržní palác.
enlarge
Milan Knížák: Weird Celt

at Vernon Project (below Vernon Galerie) Ends March 15. Heřmanova Street at Janovského, Prague 7-Holešovice

The current installation of sculptures and paintings in a storefront window in Holešovice titled “Milan Knížák: Weird Celt” can be seen as an attempt to bring Knížák’s art to the people, and to let them decide whether this most controversial of all contemporary Czech artists is worthy of all the media attention he garners.
The controversies are well-founded: Soon after becoming general director of the National Gallery in Prague in 1999, Knížák purchased his own works for the Czech national collection, including two horrendous gray cement slabs that he had placed in front of the National Gallery’s Veletržní palác.
Previously, when he was a professor and rector of the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague (1990–97), he was scorned for firing many good professors and expelling students who disagreed with his administrative decisions — ironic in those early days of renewed democracy.
Knížák’s long list of other scandals — including his most recent one, which involves the purchase of a work by Joseph Beuys from a friend’s art gallery for an amount far above its estimated value, and against the wishes of the acquisitions committee of the National Gallery — is enumerated on his résumé, which is placed in the window (in Czech) of Vernon Project for all to read.
On a Sunday afternoon this reviewer observed passers-by — most only stopped and looked in the window for a few seconds, then silently moved on, not bothering to read the résumé. At least one well-dressed older couple had a short exchange: The woman said with surprise, “Oh look! It’s his work!” while her male companion lamented, “It’s his stupid stuff.”
The exhibition, located at the corner of Heřmanova and Janovského streets, is just a short walk from the National Gallery’s Veletržní palác. It features Knížák’s name in bold print on the gallery window and 20 works: 14 mangled or altered vinyl records, three paintings and three sculptures. While they’re reminiscent of pieces from Knížák’s earlier periods, the works are all identified as being from 2008.
The mutilated albums (Destroyed Music) placed along the two storefront windows are the most quixotic. They look dated, wrapped in masking tape, painted silver, burnt on the edges, with some chipped or split in half. One is wrapped in aluminum foil, and another is scuffed from being rubbed with sandpaper. A couple of them have shark fins (made of vinyl), and one is painted in light blue, with other colors smeared on it to look vaguely like a map of the world (with two fins sticking out). This last one is the only album that somehow seems fitting for our times.
In the center of the room, Still Life consists of a small table topped with a clutter of paint cans, brushes and other objects glued on top, such as a beer bottle, sunglasses and a mobile phone. Everything on the table is seeped in paint — purple, blue, yellow and green. The effect is quite messy.
On a pedestal stands a garden gnome statue, typical for Knížák, painted jet-black except for the mushroom, which is painted in the same colors as the messy table. Nearby is a female mannequin head painted jet-black, with a gold spout stuck onto its forehead. The spout stretches away from the head like a golden arch.
Then there are the paintings: 1968 is a white canvas with a messy red square in the center that is stenciled with a white hammer and sickle decorated with red hearts. The others are hardly worthy of note, but at least the (interchangeable) titles to these works, Humility and Stink, are appropriate.
Works like these are especially disappointing for those who respect Knížák (born in 1940) for his pioneering performance art as a member of the Fluxus group in the 1960s. He paints and sculpts like a naive artist, which he is, having never completed his university art education (he was thrown out of the Academy of Fine Arts in 1964).
There is a price list for the works in the window, ranging from 120,000 Kč ($6,970) to 450,000 Kč. This seems appropriate, since Knížák comments on the current exhibition by Irena J?Ýzová at Veletržní palác: “The atmosphere of the art scene is indistinguishable from that of the commodity market in consumer goods.”
Finally, there is a text explaining the concept for this show, which was curated by Marek Tomin. Using the ideas in Roland Barthes’ essay Death of the Author, Tomin suggests that all works of creativity can be liberated from their creator for a more objective appreciation, free of “tyrannical interpretations” or prejudiced impressions.
There is a punch line to all this: The works are not by Knížák at all. The show is by the anonymous art collective Guma Guar, who have renamed themselves The Milan Knížák Group for this show. These “liberated” works are not direct copies of Knížák’s pieces, but they are all obviously derivative of his works. Proceeds from any sales will be used to fund the group’s new Milan Knížák Award.
For an armchair view of the show, and more of the group’s shenanigans, check out the Web page Myspace.com/milanknizak.

Tony Ozuna can be reached at features@praguepost.com


Other articles in Night & Day (27/02/2008):

Browse the Current Issue

If you enjoyed this article, why don't you subscribe to the print version!
We accept secure online transactions provided by PayPal and Moneybookers

Be the first to add a comment!


Full Name: *
City: *
E-mail: **
This comment can be published in the print version of The Prague Post
Enter the text on the right:
 visual captcha
Comment: *
* Required field. In order to be approved for display, comments must have a first and last name and a city.
** E-mails are required and will only be used for internal purposes.

Most visited in Business Listings

Provokator
Hotel booking
The Prague Post Online contains a selection of articles that have been printed in
The Prague Post, a weekly newspaper published in the Czech Republic.
To subscribe to the print paper, click here.
Unauthorized reproduction is strictly prohibited.