Sokol mezi obrazy - Teorie umění, estetika a umělecká kritika Miroslava Tyrše – Stibral Karel (2023)

The monograph addresses the theory and history of art, aesthetics, and the art criticism of Miroslav Tyrš (1832–1884), who is generally known as the founder and leading figure of Sokol, but was also an art and culture historian, an aesthetician, and the first professor of art history at the Czech part of Charles University in Prague. The monograph presents and analyzes his extensive work, which has remained overshadowed by the gymnastics movement. This movement, however, was also strongly influenced by his understanding of culture and art – Tyrš integrated models from ancient Greece into Sokol and consistently pursued the renaissance of the ideal of kalokagathia. As a result, he focused not only on the aesthetic theory of physical exercises and gymnastics but also on art theory and became the first Czech critic focused exclusively on visual arts. Therefore, the book attempts to present his views, scattered across various theoretical texts and art critiques, in a more coherent manner and also to place them in the context of contemporary opinions from which he drew.