Flowers and Other Worlds. Anna Zemánková, Cecilie Marková, Marie Kodovská and Czech Spiritualists
The exhibition Flowers and Other Worlds. Anna Zemánková, Cecilie Marková, Marie Kodovská and Czech Spiritualists (Kwiaty innych światów. Anna Zemánková, Cecilie Marková, Marie Kodovská oraz czescy spirytyści) presents a selection of works centred on the motif of the flower, which occupies a significant place in the Olomouc art brut collection. Flowers – which for centuries have been among the most distinctive archetypes in art – are not a reflection of the natural world, but above all a projection of the inner essence, a kind of ‘botany of the soul’. They are deeply intimate; they become metaphors, signs and symbols. They act as messages from ‘other worlds’ and images of altered dimensions of perception. The visual transformations of these worlds take on unconventional, often dreamlike and strange forms, characterised by a unique expressive power.
This is particularly evident in the extraordinary phenomenon known as ‘mediumistic drawings’. The extensive production of such drawings through the mediumship of spirits developed as part of the rich activities of spiritualist societies in the Czech lands in the late 19th and first half of the 20th centuries. This flourishing was aided by a more relaxed and tolerant social atmosphere in Bohemia and Moravia, as well as by the specific cultural conditions shaped by the region’s history. The scale and mass character of this phenomenon are probably unparalleled in a European context. Another notable phenomenon was the dozens of exhibitions of mediumistic drawings organised by spiritualist societies across the country up until 1938. Their work aroused the interest and admiration of artists such as Josef Čapek and Jan Zrzavý. Under the subsequent totalitarian regimes – Nazi and Communist – this tradition, however, gradually died out.
The creators of spiritualist drawings, who came mainly from rural and small-town backgrounds, did not regard themselves as the true authors of their works. Rather, they regarded themselves as intermediaries – mediums. Their works were created in a special state of inspiration, under the influence of a powerful creative impulse and a sense of extraordinary connection with invisible sources, which they often referred to by the names of spirits, and sometimes also by the names of known or unknown planets. They usually noted beneath their drawings the duration of this ‘connection’ during which the work was created. These were neither mentally ill individuals nor socially excluded people. Their work was based on the ideals of spiritualism. It is worth noting that the principle of free automatism, present in these works, also represents one of the foundations of Surrealist art.
The exhibition presents a selection of works created during the 20th century by more than twenty artists, including anonymous creators as well as such well-known names as Anna Zemánková, Cecilie Marková and Josef Kotzian. One of the key criteria for selecting the works was their indisputable artistic value and compelling authenticity – qualities that define the exceptional power and significance of this remarkable body of work. The works on display in the exhibition come from the collection of the Olomouc Museum of Art.
Exhibition curators: Anežka Šimková, Šárka Belšíková (Olomouc Museum of Art), Sonia Wilk (Silesian Museum)