Kamil Lhoták and His World

Kamil Lhoták and His World comprised the key exhibition project of the Aleš South Bohemian Gallery for the 2019 season. The exhibition was installed in the main hall of the castle riding school building in Hluboká nad Vltavou from 23 June to 6 October 2019. The entire exhibition project was curated by Libor Šteffek, author of several monographs focusing on Kamil Lhoták and a leading expert on his work.

This historically most extensive exhibition of Lhoták’s works presented the artist’s work in three key areas: paintings, drawings and prints. All three areas documented the artist’s development from his beginnings in the 1930s to his final works of the 1980s.

The scale of the exhibition is truly extraordinary: approximately 400 carefully selected items from institutions and private collections from the Czech Republic and from abroad map the artist’s work in a retrospective fashion while significantly exceeding the scope of even the most extensive previous exhibitions of Kamil Lhoták’s work. Furthermore, the exhibition facilitated the completion of a documentary focusing on Lhoták’s life and work; by including expert commentary on selected works of art, the documentary introduces Lhoták’s work to an even bigger audience.

(Source: Aleš South Bohemian Gallery)

The extraordinary retrospective of Lhoták’s paintings included one work loaned by the Pro arte Fund portfolio. The uncharacteristically realistic 1947 oil painting Ball and Flag (Le Havre) depicts an industrial port landscape in the north of France.