The future of civilization Part 2.

The Fifties in father´s fine art creation

Úzkost –hlavy a ruce II, (The Anxiety – Heads and Hands II), 1950 oil, canvas, 88 x 108 cm

 „The World War II echoes were causing my  moments  of worries very often. And here,suffering nations were appering to me in a tangle of paints of heads and hands in anxious expectations.“ (author´s  text K.Š.)

Komunistický převrat 1948 (The Communist Revolution ), oil,canvas, from about 1950-51, ca.150 x 100 cm

Bound hands and helplessness…

Lidstvo (The Humankind),1951, tempera - oil, wrapping paper, 200 x 250 cm

Building up of the iron curtain… barbed- wire barriers on the boarders …

Diktátor (The Dictator)1951, oil ,canvas,ca. 240 x 190 cm

In tense times of political processes with Milada Horáková and other  victims of the communist regime … Father was painting part of his fine art works secretly. Under the veil of allegorical visions and experienced  war torture,he painted works aimed against  dictatorship and violence of the Fifties.… Not all political works could be veiled as „war torture“,some of them must have remained physically hidden  not just from   STB,experts,public,but even from  his own family for decades.

Diktátorovy katakomby (The Dictator´s Catacombs), oil ,canvas, 1951-53,ca. 75 x 100 cm

Thousands of disobedient ones,most often intellectuals and also small sole-traders,were disappearing somewhere in uranium mines …

Chobotnice  STB (The  STB Octopus), oil,canvas, 1951-53,ca. 80 x 100 cm

STB had its tentacles everywhere  …

Procesy (The Processes), oil, canvas, 1951-53,ca. 100 x 80 cm

There were thousands of victims of communist dictatorship,mainly they spent  long years in uranium mines and as far as I know ,there were about 400 people executed in Bohemia… I have no idea about how many were sent to the Soviet gulags.

Květy zla (The Flowers of Evil), 1953, oil, canvas,ca. 110 x 150 cm

Malířovo vidění (The Painter´s Vision), oil, canvas, 1951-53,ca. 250 x 400 cm

Fear of arrests and running political processes evoked father´s anxious visions and worries for human society as well as his family future. I was  about 5-8 years old and could not comprehend why my father was painting those terrifying monster that were coming to haunt me in my drems.

Pax vobiscum  (The Pax Vobiscum),1951, oil,canvas, 250 x 250 cm

Translated as  „peace for mankind “