The exhibition presents a donation from the painter Zbyšek Sion to the National Gallery in Prague – a collection of early abstract drawings from the early 1960s, accompanied by works by artists from the circle of Czech Art Informel from the collections of the NGP, structural graphics by Aleš Veselý and Vladimír Boudník, and artworks by Jan Koblasa.

A turning point for these young artists came in 1960 at two private exhibitions in Prague entitled Confrontation, held in the seclusion of artists’ studios – at the studio of Jiří Valenta in the spring, and at the studio of Aleš Veselý in the autumn. The painter Zbyšek Sion also showed his works at the latter.

These artists rejected traditional themes and approaches. Together, they turned their attention to structural abstraction. Using original techniques and raw interventions into the material of the painting, they expressed their feelings of oppression of the times in an internal and cultural revolt against the omnipresent vacuity of totalitarianism. Vladimír Boudník’s radical approaches played a crucial part, as did the expressive possibilities of active and structural graphics as imprints of both external and internal worlds. By stigmatising and wounding the surface of the painting, the artists reflected the existential struggle of humanity. Aleš Veselý created archetypal images and objects resembling relics, while Jan Koblasa reacted to the deep crisis of the time through a search for transcendence. Zbyšek Sion painted telluric landscapes, explored the structures beneath the horizon, and the geographical layers of earth forming subjective maps of inner conflicts. For a while, Sion’s figural production retreated into the background, only to be reborn with new vigour, supported by this important lesson from Art Informel.