"Woman - what a godsend! And what a blessing she sows! What a flavor of this bliss and what a charm! What power to woman beckons us!" Josef Váchal
If you take a left out of the "Glass House", you will come to a room called "Sexual Nocturne". Where Mark Ther has kept the architecture modest, David Voda has chosen works expressive in their subject matter. From the cubist-surrealist expressions of Oscar Dominguez or František Janoušek, we come to paintings by Jan Kratochvíl or Jiří Načeradský from the second half of the 20th century.
The common notion that the 19th century was still a time full of prejudice, when human sexuality was taboo and could not be discussed publicly, is refuted by Michel Foucault. In The History of Sexuality, on the other hand, he describes the 19th century as setting the stage for the distinctive 1960s. Sigmund Freud's psychoanalysis was also a major influence, discussing the perception of women in society and the libido as a manifestation of basic instinctual energy. It was at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries that the female nude became a phenomenon that was an inherent part of academicism and salon painting. However, these artists acted in accordance with the consensus of the time, where women and their sexuality could not be explored publicly. In our environment, the nude also became a frequent subject, but not always necessarily enriched with eroticism, as evidenced by the exhibited works Toilet by Ludmila Jiřičná and Embrace by Ladislav Zívr.
Modernists set themselves apart from academic conventions. The contemporary perception of sexuality, gender stereotypes, the attitude of individual artistic currents and the artist's conception all played a role. Artists gradually abandoned the ideal of the pure saint (the Virgin Mary) and the image of the fragile femme fragile woman, and the type of femme fatale, the dominant woman, emerged, capturing the fear of female sexuality and rising emancipation. The existing masculine order and the contemporary idea of what a woman should be is being destroyed. Throughout the room, we can see how the representation of sexuality changed very rapidly and became increasingly emancipated during the 20th century, as evidenced by Vladimír Kopecký's Courageous.
In addition to the above, in the "Sexual Nocturne" room you can see works by Jarmila Čihánková and František Drtikol.
By Ina Ličková / Telegraph Gallery
Photo: Matěj Doležel
