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House of Art
TUES–SUN 10:00–18:00

Václav Tikal / The Dying Age

1942

The painting The Dying Age from 1942 is representative of his imaginative style and displays features characteristic of Dali’s Surrealism. It depicts a landscape with a low horizon and a calm, almost clear broad blue sky. An organic torso is struggling to survive by grasping imaginary architecture in the shape of a gateway situated in the centre of the canvas and acts at the fixed centre of the painting. The suspended torso seems to be the only thing that remains of the present world. The world in front of the gate is the last outpost of the present age, while the world beyond it that spreads into the distance is the new age. The work is an outstanding example of the high point of Tikal’s oeuvre in the early 1940s.

TIKAL VÁCLAV

Václav Tikal became established as a painter and ceramicist in the second half of the 1930s. He was already thirty when he was admitted to the Prague Academy of Fine Arts, first in the studio of Vratislav Nejezchleba and later that of Jakub Obrovský. At the end of the 1930s he became strongly influenced by Surrealism, and chiefly by Salvador Dali and Giorgio de Chirico, whose imaginative approach was closely reflected in his own work. Having been someone for whom painting was a hobby prior to his years at the Academy, Tikal suddenly started to move in the centre ground of artistic activity. He joined the group Ra and was later part of the Phases and UDS movements. Almost immediately after the end of World War II he took part in most of the thematic exhibitions and his works were also shown abroad on several occasions. After 1950 he kept a low profile and stopped painting, preferring to devote himself to design and ceramics, some of which were displayed at the Brussels Exhibition in 1958. From the mid-fifties he started to paint again but broke away from is previous stylistic direction.
The Master of the Hradec Králové / The Virgin Mary with SS Barbara and Catherine

The Master of the Hradec Králové / The Virgin Mary with SS Barbara and Catherine

around 1490
The Holy Family with the John the Baptist as a Child and St Roch

The Holy Family with the John the Baptist as a Child and St Roch

(1st decade of the 16th century)
Hans von Aachen / Job in Misfortune

Hans von Aachen / Job in Misfortune

(pre-1600)
Domenico Fetti / Adonis

Domenico Fetti / Adonis

(post 1613)
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