Fotograf Magazine

Four years ago no one in the Czech Republic spoke much of Běla Kolářová. The same held true abroad, where she for a long time was placed in the international context by one person: Antonín Dufek. This happened when he included her in the catalogue for the photogram exhibition at Zürich’s Kunsthaus (Antonín Dufek, Das Photogramm in der tschechischen Fotografie der Zwischenkriegszeit – The Photogram in Czech Photography during the Inter-war Period), in: Floris M. Neusüss, Das Fotogramm in der Kunst des 20. Jahrhunderts – The Photogram in 20th Century Art, Köln 1990) and in a text on the photographic medium in the century of the Avant- Gardes in the exhibition catalogue for Europa, Europa (Bonn 1994). Běla Kolářová’s participation in the exhibition, Akce – slovo – pohyb – prostor, set up by Vít Havránek with a team of other artists in the Prague City Gallery (Galerie hl. města Prahy) in 1999, was an indisputably large contribution. The exhibition’s title at the very least, in its three points, hints at the artist’s creative process as well. The important thing was the admission of the experiment’s quality through its subtle work that many people perceived as a sort of female, cultivated version of the rational principles in Jiří Kolář’s work.