The exhibition, which will be held in the Masné Krámy exhibition hall of the West Bohemian Gallery in Plzeň, will be accompanied by a publication with the same title: Palm Trees on the Vltava. Primitivism, non-European cultures and Czech visual art 1850–1950. The exhibition and the publication were both prepared by Tomáš Winter. They are devoted to the influence of the indigenous cultures of sub-Saharan Africa, Oceania and America on Czech visual art in the years 1850–1950. These relationships are generally known by the term primitivism. The book concentrates not only on specific works connected with African, Oceanian, and Indian art, but also on the general view of exotic cultures. This included a number of stereotypes directly connected with colonialism. Primitivism is not simply an aesthetic category, but also a discourse – a discourse on the political, social and moral aspects of non-European and, reciprocally, European cultures. The author makes critical use of contemporary theoretical approaches and re-interprets a number of phenomena. On the one hand he takes an interest in the part played in the colonial discourse by Czech travellers, collectors and artists, and in their attitudes to other races or to cannibalism, and on the other hand he traces the idea of the noble savage and the specific forms it takes in artistic and literary works. He also informs us about the content of the most important non-European collections of Czech artists.
Tomáš Winter, Palm Trees on the Vltava. Primitivism, non-European cultures and Czech visual art 1850–1950, Praha, Arbor Vitae – West Bohemian Gallery in Plzeň – Institute of Art History, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, 2013. First edition, 324 pp., 270 black-and-white and colour illustrations, bibliography, index of names, English summary, 2013.
Publication accompanying the exhibition Palm Trees on the Vltava. Primitivism, non-European cultures and Czech visual art 1850–1950
The publication Palm Trees on the Vltava. Primitivism, non-European cultures and Czech visual art 1850–1950 was prepared by Tomáš Winter to accompany the exhibition of the same title in the West Bohemian Gallery in Plzeň (Masné Krámy exhibition hall, 30 January to 28 April 2013).
The book has been published by the publishing house Arbor Vitae together with the West Bohemian Gallery in Plzeň and the Institute of Art History, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic.