A synthesis of cultures

"Ten thousand things" is an ancient Chinese expression for all the observable objects in the world that can be named. It refers to the simultaneous unity and diversity, and dynamic interconnection, of everything in the universe. "Ten Thousand Things, Ten Thousand Years" is therefore a befitting title for the retrospective of the painter and illustrator Zdeněk Sklenář, an artist whose work synthesizes and unifies cultural influences across continents and centuries, from 20th-century Europe to ancient and modern China.

One hundred years after his birth (he died in 1986), the Prague City Gallery's House at the Stone Bell is holding the biggest retrospective of Sklenář's work in the Czech Republic to date (the only larger exhibition was last year at the Chinese National Gallery in Beijing). Comprising more than 110 exhibits, the show focuses primarily on his paintings. It also showcases his extensive work in the field of book art, including his illustrations for the famous 16th-century Chinese epic The Monkey King, which have been turned into a film animation that should delight young visitors to the show. (An interactive version of the animation is currently featured at the Czech pavilion at World Expo in Shanghai.)

The works in this show span the mid-1930s to the '80s, beginning with early female portraits and nudes that show Surrealist influences and employ an almost Mannerist approach to the figure. A reclining nude from 1942 has an elongated torso that is illuminated by the full moon outside, while her exaggeratedly short legs are compacted into the shadows. The show continues with theatrical portraits, imaginative landscapes and still lifes. Already in these early works, Sklenář emerges as an inspired colorist. In Outcast (1949) he compresses figures, trees and other manifestations of nature into the wings of a butterfly.

One of the most compelling of his portraits is Homage to František Tichý (1950-54), an artist who was both an influence and a friend. As Sklenář wrote in his newly published memoir Recollections, he was intrigued by the synthesis of influences in Tichý's work, which included George Seurat and the Cubists. He writes that he painted Homage on the covering of a straw mattress sent to him by his aunt, since regular canvas was hard to come by at that time. What was originally to have been a portrait painted from memory evolved into a complex synthesis of Tichý's motifs and themes, such as the circus, cabarets and cafés - an imaginative mosaic of a complex artistic personality.

Sklenář was fascinated with the Italian artist Giuseppe Arcimboldo, court painter to Habsburg Emperor Rudolf II, and there is an entire room devoted to Sklenář's homages to him. Often darker in tone, these compositionally dense paintings seem to channel the esoteric and alchemical spirit of Rudolfine Prague with their inscrutable blend of symbols, organic swirls and lines.

A trip to China in the mid-1950s impacted Sklenář's art for the rest of his life. He had been interested in the culture of China long before he traveled there in 1955 as the head graphic artist for an exhibition of Czechoslovak culture. He was able to stay for three months, during which time he made contact with leading Chinese visual artists and poets and filled journals with sketches of architectural details, bronze sculptures, the landscape, calligraphy, seals, ideograms and other motifs that would resurface in his paintings for many years.

Elaborate use of line and imaginative fantasy are two characteristics of many of his paintings. Beijing Fish (1956) is wonderfully colorful and like a mosaic in its structure, and Seals - Chinese Calligraphy (1957) is an ornate all-over composition that incorporates archaic symbols, seals and calligraphic line. Many of his paintings from this time have a richness and depth that result from his penchant for adding sand to the paint, and scratching, cutting or burning into the painting, adding an almost archeological sense of digging to reveal what's concealed beneath the surface.

Sklenář loved China, but he seemed to have an equal fondness for the Moravian and Bohemian countryside, and the folklore and craft traditions of his homeland. There is a room devoted to the theme of forests and mountains, along with embroidery and other folk motifs.

On a carved wood table in the final room is the book Songs of Ancient China, courtesy of the artist's nephew and namesake, who continues the tradition of book culture that captivated his uncle (who took part in some 600 book publications, doing illustrations, book covers, dustwraps and graphic layout). The younger Sklenář published this bilingual bibliophile edition of the Songs before the Beijing exhibition. Viewers can slip on a pair of white cotton gloves and carefully page through the book, which marries the ancient Chinese poetry, translated into Czech by Bohumil Mathesius, with Sklenář's washy, atmospheric illustrations for the 1965 edition.

Among the finest paintings in this show are the ones that synthesize Chinese and Western traditions, uniting and harmonizing poetic and folkloric elements from both cultures and imprinting them with Sklenář's own inimitable style and imagination. Often they are so loaded with symbols, motifs, and both organic and geometric line that "10,000 things" is an apt metaphor.

The installation of this show by the artist Federico Diaz adds to the absorbing ambience of the exhibition. Wallpaper and even floor coverings filled with enlarged details from Sklenář's paintings and illustrations, and sculptures Sklenář collected in China, installed in a candle-lit Gothic chapel, combine to create a contemplative and enveloping environment that offers a rich experience for viewers.

Mimi Fronczak Rogers can be reached at
Features@praguepost.com