...And Don’t Forget the Flowers

The natural beauty, purity, fragility and rapid fading of flowers have always inspired artists. The presence of flowers in a painting significantly influenced the impact of the work even if it was mere decoration at the background of the picture. In various periods of art history interest in this subject rises and falls following the rhythm of a sinus wave (xenia, mythological painting, flower still-lifes, Pre-Raphaelite painting, modernist still-lifes, etc.). The occurrence of the flowers is mapped out and fixed by elaborate symbolism of their meaning, thanks to which we are drawn into tales of the mythical heroes of Antiquity (Flora, Narcissus, Hyacinth, Adonis, Artemis, Aphrodite, Venus, Diana, etc.) and the saints of the Christian world (the Virgin Mary, St. Rita, St. Therese of Lisieux, etc.).

The exhibition …and don't forget the flowers traces the variability of the subject matter in the works of contemporary artists (Jan Merta, Jiri Kovanda, Josef Bolf, Ján Mancuska, Markéta Othová, Jasanský-Polák, and others).