Item #54150 [A VISION FOR CZECH POST-WAR ART] Veliká příležitost: poznámky k reorganisaci českého výtvarnictví [A great opportunity: notes on the reorganisation of Czech art]. Jindřich Chalupecký, František Hudeček, artist.

Chalupecký, Jindřich and František Hudeček (artist).

[A VISION FOR CZECH POST-WAR ART] Veliká příležitost: poznámky k reorganisaci českého výtvarnictví [A great opportunity: notes on the reorganisation of Czech art].

Prague: Výtvarný odbor Umělecké besedy, 1946. Octavo (20.7 × 15 cm). Original staple-stitched pictorial wrappers by F. Hudeček; 35, [2] pp. Very good. Item #54150

First and only edition of this important but apparently largely unknown and un-referenced manifesto on the opportunities for revitalizing Czech art following the devastation of World War II. Published in the brief interlude before non-Marxist visions of cultural rebirth were squashed by the Communist coup of 1948. Chalupecký (1910–1990) was an influential heoretician, critic, curator, and essayist, and director of the Václav Špála Gallery in Prague, which he turned into a major site of international artistic exchange.

Wrappers and overall design by František Hudeček, a member of the Czech post-war artist group “Skupina 42” (Group 42), which was formally founded in 1940, during the German Protectorate. It was forbidden by the Communist government in 1948, but its members and artists continued to work and impact the Czech art scene well into the 1970s.

As of January 2024, KVK, OCLC only show the copy at the Czech National Library.