On Love
12 May – 19 Sep 2021
We’re open to all, now also you
Tickets to all current exhibitions are also available on-line.
DOX Centre for Contemporary Art
Poupětova 1, Praha 7
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An extensive catalogue for the On Love exhibition is for sale in our Bendox bookshop on the first floor, as well as via our e-shop.
„In an ever noisier world, the greatest pain and the greatest pleasure then fall silent, and one tendency in my art is to amplify them once more. Other people’s true dramas cannot be invented.“
S. H.
On Love is the first public presentation of the works of Siegfried Herz, which include paintings, drawings, photos and videos. Up until now, Herz has only allowed a few of his closest friends and family members to see his work. For more than ten years, the artist has lived in a sort of seclusion, isolated from the outside world, with only second-hand information about contemporary art and the cultural scene as such. Even so, his works are deeply relevant and topical, earning him his rightful place on the vast contemporary art scene. Herz follows the everyday hustle and bustle from a distance; for him, time flows differently, in his own personal rhythm. His works defy such categories as “new,” “current” or “contemporary,” which are meaningless and unnecessary for him. Finding inspiration in his own lived reality, Herz views the present from a much broader perspective. His own, inner world is vast, and often incorporates themes from ancient philosophy and art. The artist does not try to conceal the sources of his inspiration but openly acknowledges them. Among his influences, Herz cites various prominent artists, musicians, film makers, writers and philosophers (Brigitte Helm, Simone de Beauvoir, Jean-Luc Godard, Richard Wagner, Edvard Munch, Amanda Lear, David Lynch).
His works form loosely connected, constantly developing cycles; the author often returns to previously explored topics and approaches them in a different manner. He likes experimenting with various artistic techniques and colours, painting with coffee, using collages and imprints. Living in solitude has stimulated Herz’s artistic insight and sensitivity toward his surroundings. His paintings can be viewed as a sort of journal entries, chronicling his infrequent encounters with people, the books he reads, music he listens to or composes, his pain and love, dreams and desires. Herz’s works are deeply introspective and authentic, exposing his own body and soul with an often brutal honesty, often revealing what should remain hidden.
Curator: Otto M. Urban
Keep exloring
KAFKAesque
The exhibition KAFKAesque focuses on reflections on Kafka’s work and poetics in contemporary visual art offering not a historical perspective of his work, but a view that reflects our present-day situation with all its complexities and ambiguities.
Kamila Ženatá: Everything Like at the Dawn of the World
The exhibition will present large-format abstract canvases by the Czech artist Kamila Ženatá, created over the last few years. A constant in her work is the constant search, the desire for knowledge, the effort to get closer to the mystery of human existence and to understand the order of the world.
Pavel Forman: Transforman
The exhibition will present thirty of the latest works by the painter Pavel Forman. The title of the exhibition can be understood as a play on words, referring of course to the artist’s name and at the same time to his favourite forms and approaches, which are in a sense “trans”, i.e. metamorphosing, transitional or mutating.
Point of View: Identity
Another instalment of the long-term project, which combines the format of an exhibition and a classroom and focuses on the theme of human identity. Who am I? What am I? The human form naturally takes centre stage; the body, its clothing, its behaviour. A person's identity and the different ways of looking at it.
