A weak showing from the Stubborn Ones, 2003, Prague Post, English

<small>Z Kokolia</small>

autor textu: Paul Wilson

A weak showing from the Stubborn Ones
One set of eyes will do for this unimaginative exhibition.
- viz také Response to Paul Wilson, 2003, nepublikováno, English

týdeník Prague Post, 12.3.2003, vyšlo k výstavě: Generační výsek, Galerie Tvrdohlaví, Praha

One of them crowned the castle with a heart. Another designed the duty-free shop at Prague's Ruzyne airport, while the third is obsessed with motifs from ancient Assyrian art. These diverse artists -- Jiri David, Michal Gabriel and Zdenek Lhotsky -- are members of the Tvrdohlavi, or Stubborn Ones. The eight-member collective first exhibited together Dec. 22, 1987, in an exhibition prosaically titled "Tvrdohlavi 1" at Obecni dum. It was described by member Petr Nikl as the defining moment of the "cultural perestroika" of the time.

Today, the group has a gallery in which to showcase their works. In this exhibition, they've invited their friends and peers to join them, with decidedly mixed results.

Most of the eight artists represented in this exhibition were at the center of the dissident movement engendered by elders such as Vaclav Havel. They have all had successful careers, with awards and international shows ranging from Sydney to Denmark to New York. Therefore, it is astonishing how weak some of the exhibited works are.

Tomas Cisarovsky throws down the artistic gauntlet to which all should aspire. His super-realist style is reminiscent of Edward Hopper, but his stoic figures are backed by Technicolor stripes straight from a television test pattern. The boldness of his palette, bursting with pastel blues, tangy greens and lemony yellows, is stunning.

So is the solidity of his line in How It Once Was, a double portrait of Lou and Dean Reed with a horse. Is he poking fun at the naivete of many people in Czechoslovakia who might have believed that the New York counterculture rocker and the communist crooner from Colorado were related? Or is he presenting a musical choice of Lou Reed for the dissidents and Dean Reed for the apparatchiks? However one reads the painting, it is a stroke of genius.

Igor Korpaczewski, alias KW, picks up the baton next. He sets off at a strong pace with two portraits, Ich forma and Perla. In contrast to Cisarovsky's comic-book punning, these have a great depth of expressiveness. However, with the portrait Tears, KW presents an unfinished work, both in form and concept. It fails even to allude to its incompleteness.

From here on, the contributors seem at a loss for ideas -- and sometimes, technical competence. Vladimir Kokolia turns in an unintentionally kitschy abstract painting titled Sparks, while Antonin Strizek lags behind with a series called Sketches, poorly drawn black pastel works on low-quality paper.

The next exhibition coming up at Galerie Tvrdohlavi is titled "The Youngsters." Let's hope that this group's post-1989 followers can inspire their forebears to reconnect with their imaginations.

The Tvrdohlavi Generation

at Galerie Tvrdohlavi Ends March 29. Vodickova 36 (foyer of the cinema in Lucerna Palace), Prague 1-New Town. Open daily 10 a.m.-10 p.m.