Vojtěch Lahoda

Vojtěch Lahoda is of the generation of art historians that began their university studies during the normalisation period. They were aware of how large gaps in artistic research during the communist era had been forcibly created and focused their activities on these lacunae. The communist regime had made every effort to erase traces of “inconvenient” persons from the Czech interwar avant-garde and modernism. A proper evaluation of their work would only be possible after 1989.

Lahoda had already given an indication of what direction his research would take in his theses at the department of art history of the Arts Faculty of Charles University in Prague, written in 1979 and called The Painter Karel Černý. Since then he has concentrated on Czech cubism, an interest visible in his dissertation The Figure in Czech Painting 1907–1932: Cubist Solutions. He specialises in the history of Czech modernism and the avant-garde within a European context, and in the history of Czech modernism of the second half of the twentieth century.

After his studies Lahoda held many different positions at the Institute of Art History of the Academy of Sciences (formerly the Institute of Art Theory and History of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences or ÚTDU ČSAV), where he is now director. During the 1980s he was already publishing in magazines such as Umění, Výtvarná kultura and Výtvarný život, mainly texts devoted to the personalities of Czech and world cubism (Josef Čapek, Karel Černý, Emil Filla, Pablo Picasso, etc.), the avant-garde of the 1920s (Devětsil and Social Civilism), as well as contemporary art (Karel Malich and the Transformations of Sensuality). From 1985 to 1988, he was a member of the editorial team of the samizdat anthology Někdo Něco (NN), that performed the function of art periodical and took an interdisciplinary approach with an emphasis on literature, theatre, film, fine art and theory. The magazine also published interviews with artists who were able to engage in public life only sporadically (e.g. Adriena Šimotová, Vladimír Janoušek and Stanislav Judl).

Lahoda began working as a curator in the 1980s. As well as monographic exhibitions examining individual cubist painters (Karel Černý and Emil Filla), as co-author he focused on group exhibitions of contemporary artists of several generations. These projects included Možnosti dotyku / Possibilities of Touch (1984), Mladé sochařství 89 / Young Sculpture 89 (1989), and Příroda jinak (1989). In the years following the Velvet Revolution he expanded his interest in the young generation of artists at the exhibition New Names (1991).

During the 1990s, a sphere opened up that had been out of bounds under the previous regime and Lahoda’s interest shifted from contemporary art to modernism, the avant-garde and the art of the 1950s and 60s. He contributed to publications charting art history of the twentieth century: The History of Czech Art 1890/1938 (IV/1), 1939/1958 (V), 1958/2000 (VI/1), Czech Modern Art 1900–1960, Czech Surrealism 1929–1953, Czech Cubism and Expressionism and Czech Art. He also began to lecture in the history of modernist and contemporary art at FAMU in Prague. Since 2001 he has been a lecturer at the Institute of Art History at the Arts Faculty of Charles University in Prague, where he began his studies.

Lahoda paid special attention to the work of Karel Černý, whom he had studied for his university dissertation, as well as Emil Filla and Zdeněk Rykr. His attempt to evaluate the work of these artists culminated in an essay and a large exhibition. He studied the work and legacy of Zdeněk Rykr in several waves beginning in the mid-1990s, and it can reasonably be claimed that he rediscovered this hitherto barely known artist for the public. His largest research output to date was the 2000 exhibition Zdenek Rykr 1900–1940. Elegy to the Avant-garde. Last year, he returned to this theme and organised the exhibition Zdeněk Rykr and the Chocolate Factory, which aimed to place Rykr’s more commercial work within the context of his art as a whole.

In addition, Lahoda is the author of many books dealing with the work of Jan Autengruber, Libor Fára, Miroslav Hájek, Josef Sudek and Karel Teige, as well as the collection of Vincenc Kramář, and has greatly contributed to our knowledge of Czech twentieth century art. Lahoda also mounts exhibitions in which the work of selected artists is placed within a European context. However, he does not examine only individual personalities, but attempts in his writing to deal with overlapping trends. In The Brussels Dream: the Czechoslovak Presence at the Expo 58, he attempted to discover just how influential was the aesthetic of the “Brussels style” on the work of artists during the 1950s and 60s. Last year he participated on the book StArt – Sport as a symbol in fine art, for which he wrote the chapter Sport as a Metaphor for Existence.

At present Lahoda leads a project that will last several years at the Institute of Art History entitled Josef Sudek and Photographic Documentation of Artworks: from a private archive of art to representation of the cultural legacy. The aim is to increase our knowledge of that part of Sudek’s work in which he systematically examines the documentation of artworks. The project is partly related to Lahoda’s most recent curatorial venture, the exhibition Josef Sudek: In the Studio.

2007 
prof.

1999 
doc., habilitační řízení „Český kubismus“, MU Brno

1985 
CSc., kandidátská práce: Figura v českém malířství 1907 - 1932: kubistické řešení (školitel P. Wittlich);

1981–1985 
ÚTDU (ÚDU) ČSAV, aspirantura;

1979 
PhDr., rigorózní práce: Malíř Karel Černý (prof. P. Wittlich);

1974–1979 
FF UK, dějiny umění-estetika, diplomová práce: Malíř Karel Černý (ved. prof. P. Wittlich);

Scholarships:

1985 
Instytut Sztuki PAN, Varšava (3 týdny) (Polský modernismus);

1986 
Ústav dějin umění Maďarské akademie věd, Budapešť (3 týdny) (Maďarský modernismus);

1988 
Akademie der Bildende Künste, Berlin, Halle, Erfurt, DDR (3 týdny) (Německý expresionismus);

1990 
Princeton University, USA (1 týden) konference; 1991 C.A.S.V.A., National Gallery of Art, Washington, D. C. (4 měsíce) Soros Visiting Fellowship;

1991 
Holandská královská akademie věd, Amsterdam, Haag (2 týdny) (Archiv T. van Doesburg);

1992 
C.N.R.S, Paříž (3 týdny) (Picasso); 1993 C.G.R.I., Brusel (3 týdny) (René Magritte);

1994 
The Research Council of Norway, Munch Museet, Oslo (3 týdny) (Edvard Munch);

1995 
Španělské ministerstvo kultury, Madrid, Barcelona, Toledo (3 týdny) (Picasso a El Greco);

1996 
Netherlands Institute for Advanced Studies (NIAS), Wassenaar, Holandsko (1 měsíc);

1996 
The Research Council of Norway, Rasmus Meyers Samlinger, Bergen ( 2 týdny) (Edvard Munch);

1997 
Aarhus University, Dánsko (3 týdny) (Asger Jorn);

1999 
Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Izrael (3 týdny) (conference Sixth International Seminar on Jewish Art) - Ministerstvo školství, Řecko, Athény, Rhodos (3 týdny) (Zdenek Rykr v Řecku);

2000 
Royal Academy, Stockholm, Göteborg, Malmö, Švédsko (3 týdny) (Endre Nemes; Sbírka Rolfa de Maré);

2001 
Royal Society of Edinburgh, Caledonian Research Fellowship, University St. Andrews, University of Edinburgh (3 měsíce) (Vincenc Kramář and John Constable);

2001 
Finnish Academy, Helsinki, Jyväskylä (3 týdny) (Finský modernismus a sběratelství; Alvar Aalto);

2003 
Royal Academy, Stockholm (2 týdny) (Asplund a Lewerentz).

1991–1994 a 1998–1999 
FAMU Praha

1992 
Central European University, Prague, lectures in English;

1995, 1999 
Ohio University Spring Prague Abroad Program, pro Ohio University, Athens, USA, lectures in English in Prague;

Od 2001 
Ústav pro dějiny umění FFUK, Praha;

2002 
C.I.E.E. Karlova Univerzita, Praha, lectures in English;

2004 
Vytautas Magnus University, Kaunas, Litva, lectures in English.

Karel Černý. Obrazy, kresby (kat.) GVU Cheb 1982.

Možnosti dotyku, Sdružený klub pracujících ROH, Rokycany 1984.

Karel Černý. Výběr z díla, GHMP 1986.

Svět Emila Filly, GHMP 1987.

Příroda jinak. Milan Maur, Václav Malina, Miloš Šejn, Marian Palla, Vlastimil Krčmář, SČVU Praha 1989.

Karel Černý – kresby a grafika (kat.), Rychnov n. Kněžnou, Pardubice 1990.

1909-1925 Kubismus in Prag, Düsseldorf, Kunsverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen, 1991.

Český kubismus 1909-1925, NG v Praze 1991.

Vergangene Zukunft. Tschechische Moderne 1890 bis 1918, Wien 1993.

Emil Filla, Galerie Peithner-Lichtenfels Wien 1994.

Ohniska znovuzrození: České umění 1956-1963 (koncepce výst. M. Judlová), GHMP 1994.

České moderní umění 1900-1960. Stálá expozice ve Veletržním palace NG v Praze, spoluautoři: L. Bydžovská, K. Srp, NG Praha 1995-2000.

Cesta na jih. Inspirace českého umění 19. a 20. století (ved. J. Kroutvor), Obecní dům, Praha 1999.

Vincenc Kramář. Od starých mistrů k Picassovi, NG Praha 2000.

Zdenek Rykr (1900-1940). Elegie avantgardy, GHMP 2000.

Jan Autengruber. Dílo/ Works 1910 – 1920, Grafický kabinet paláce Kinských, NG Praha 2002.

Josef Sudek. The Commercial Photography for Družstevní práce, Alvar Aalto Museum, Jyväskylä 2003.

Josef Sudek. Designfotografie der dreissiger Jahre, Tschechisches Zentrum, Berlin 2004.

Filla – Sudek, GHMP, Dům U Zlatého prstenu, Praha 2004.

Josef Sudek. Designfotografie der dreissiger Jahre, Tschechisches Zentrum, München 2005.

For detailed bibliography please see:

www.udu.cas.cz/pracovnici/lahoda.html