[CZECH POST-WAR ART – CONCRETE ART AND POETRY] Experiment v umění: sborník materiálů ze semináře 8. a 9. března 1966, zámek Štiřín [The experiment in art: an anthology of materials from the seminar on March 8 and 9 1966, Štiřín Castle].

Prague: Městský výbor Socialistická Akademie, 1966. Quarto (28.6 × 20.5 cm). Original pictorial wrappers; spine reenforced with cloth (as issued); 77 pp. of typescript to rectos. Owner signature (?) of Volek to front wrapper. Text lightly toned; about very good. Item #52595

Rare volumes of proceedings of a conference held in 1966, with contributions by important experimental writers Josef Hiršal and Bohumila Grögerová, as well as the musicologist and semiotician Jaroslav Volek (1923–1989), who played an important role in expanding awareness of aesthetic theory within the social sciences and society as a whole during the 1960s. Volek was lecturer at the Department of Aesthetics and General Art Theory at Charles University and served as its head in 1969–1972.

Contains texts by Jaroslav Volek "O experimentu v umění" (About the experiment in art), Josef Hiršal "O poezii přírozené a umělé" (About natural and artificial poetry), Bohumila Grögerová, "Fonická poezie" (Fonic poetry), Václav Kučera, "Umělecký experiment v hudbě" (Artistic experiments in music), Přemysl Maydl, "Experiment v současním divadelním umění" (Experiments in contemporary theater arts), Luděk Novák, "Hranice umění a experiment" (The border of art and experiment).

The volume is indicative of the gradual liberalization of cultural politics in communist Czechoslovakia in the lead-up to the Prague Spring of 1968. Starting with an important 1963 province on Kafka, scholars began to push the boundaries of what could be discussed during the latter years of Antonín Novotný's government. Following the Soviet Invasion, which brought the Prague Spring to an abrupt standstill and initiated the repressive politics of the Normalization era, writers such as Hiršal and Grögerová were once again driven out of the cultural mainstream and relegated to unofficial publishing venues.

One of 500 copies printed, but we cannot trace any holdings. As of July 2023, not in KVK, OCLC. Does not appear to be held by the Czech National Library.

Price: €750.00

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