Since the 1950s and 1960s, many visual artists have been using fire as a means of expression. These works take various forms. Some artists focus on outdoor installations, later documented through photographs or video recordings (Eduard Ovčáček, Svatopluk Klimeš, Olaf Hanel, Miloš Šejn, Zorka Ságlová). Others draw with fire (Jiří Georg Dokoupil, Svatopluk Klimeš, Jan Steklík, Ladislav Novák) or create collages (Eduard Ovčáček, Věra Janoušková, Radek Kratina). Still others incorporate ash—the residue of fire—into their drawings or paintings (Václav Bláha, Rodnye Grover), or work with burnt paper (Dalibor Chatrný). There are also scorched sculptures and objects (Jan Koblasa, Eduard Ovčáček). The motif of fire appears in both modern (František Gross) and contemporary (Martin Mainer) painting.

Fire, as one of the elemental forces, has thus become a powerful presence in the work of leading Czech—and naturally, not only Czech—artists (Yves Klein, Anselm Kiefer, and others) across several generations over the past fifty years. 

Jiří Machalický

Translated with the help of GPT chat.

Curator: Jiří Machalický