Very often I had to remind myself that the focus of this seminar is mountains while looking at the beautiful works. I was charmed by Adam Kašpar’s Smrkový prales and from other blog posts, I can see I am not the only one, but the painting that stayed craved into my brain is Julius Mařák’s Bouře, it was a piece I always returned to, the mood set right before the storm, but there was some strange calm aspect hidden there. Almost like sitting by the window, watching the stormy sky feeling safe, just admiring its beauty. I think we can compare the feeling to reaching the top of the mountain and while standing above the clouds the panorama of the city below, and you know that each of the houses means life, a person, a small storm on its own, but in that particular moment, you are above of it all and just observing from the distance. 

Proceeding to other side of the gallery and I stood before Joža Uprka’s Pouť u svatého Antonínka.

Seeing now I remember I did not like the painting itself, but the moment I was passing around the corridor was filled with sun. The window being in the opposite of the painting It seemed like the sunlight was designed to be its personal reflector, it might not have anything to do with mountains, but I believe the feeling I got while walking past it, the colours so beautiful and bright in the sun, have everything to do with the theory of affect.

From the mountain-themed art, I loved František Šimon Tavík’s work, on first glance I thought it shows something heavy falling through the block, you head to come closer to see the contour line of the Alps on the inside. The contour line was very popular in artistic reflection of mountains, 3D models or Vztahy by Daniel Fisher were amazing in capturing how the land changes.

I want to end my blog post with the last piece in the gallery, it was the theoretical stage with a stool and metal object carefully arranged in the space. It took me longer than I care to admit to seeing what was right in front of me; a lion in a cage. I was so happy to recognize it, and I can safely say it was my favourite piece, I enjoyed imagining entering the empty space and somehow taking becoming part of it.