5 p.m.

The patron of the exhibition is Lukáš Curylo, Deputy Governor of the Moravian-Silesian Region.
Funded by the Czech Ministry of Culture.

This exhibition presents the work of Jablunkov-born painter Antonín Tomalík (1939–1968), set in the context of works by his friends. It provides an insight into the era that helped shape Tomalík’s creative path, as well as accentuating the ideas and tendencies with which he identified. In his early career he explored Biblical themes, viewing them as a source of analogies with his own life experiences. He then found a powerful source of inspiration in gestural painting and structural abstraction, which offered him a language for self-expression from the late 1950s onwards, when he felt burdened by an existential crisis as a result of the totalitarian regime. Tomalík was one of the most courageous painters of his era in this regard, and he remained loyal to structural abstraction. In the late 1960s he rediscovered his earlier fascination with parables, which enabled him to express the profound crisis he was undergoing – a crisis which he did not manage to overcome.

Mahulena Nešlehová

free entry