Publicistika 4 - Výtvarné eseje a kritiky 1931-1939 – Čapek Josef (2023)

The volumes Publicistika 3 and Publicistika 4 continue from the published Publicistika 2 (2012) and provide a substantial summary of Čapek's reports, reviews, notes, and articles on events in the field of visual arts from 1921 to 1930, and from 1931 to 1939, respectively. With these volumes, we not only conclude the publication of this author's visual journalism but also complete the entire Works, the publication of which was initiated in 2007 with the volume on Čapek's literary journalism. The texts included in the last two volumes were mostly originally published in periodicals and come from the period of Čapek's involvement with Lidové noviny, where he was responsible for the section dealing with exhibitions in Prague. He regularly contributed to this newspaper from April 1921 until his arrest on September 1, 1939. He published hundreds of reports in which he tracked visual activities in the capital. Although the newspaper did not consider itself a space for visual critical activity, his work for the paper cannot be read merely as informative articles about exhibitions in Prague. He almost never renounced his own evaluations, in which he expressed his distinct claim to artistic creation, which he himself applied in his painting. He followed exhibitions of important artistic personalities as well as lesser-known authors and...