Open daily 10 AM–6 PM Venue: Prague Castle Riding School
Franta (b. 1930 as František Mertl) is an outstanding representative of figurative painting. A native of Třebíč and a graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, he has lived in the south of France since 1958, when he adopted his artistic name Franta. He re-established his severed ties with Czechoslovakia in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when, after his breakthrough in Paris, the National Gallery in Prague purchased one of his paintings. However, despite his many exhibitions, Franta’s art – centred around the human figure and the relationship between man and the world – remains little known to a wider Czech audience.
Franta (b. 1930 as František Mertl) is an outstanding representative of figurative painting. A native of Třebíč and a graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, he has lived in the south of France since 1958, when he adopted his artistic name Franta. He re-established his severed ties with Czechoslovakia in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when, after his breakthrough in Paris, the National Gallery in Prague purchased one of his paintings. However, despite his many exhibitions, Franta’s art – centred around the human figure and the relationship between man and the world – remains little known to a wider Czech audience.
Thirty years after his first retrospective at Karolinum in Prague, organized by the then Czech Museum of Fine Arts in Prague in 1995, the present exhibition at the Prague Castle Riding School features seven decades of the artist’s work, including large-format India ink drawings and bronze sculptures. This exhibition is held to mark the state award conferred on the artist by the President of the Czech Republic in 2023. The works showcased were lent by the artist as well as Czech and French art museums and private collections, including the National Gallery in Prague, the Moravian Gallery in Brno, the City of Paris Museum of Modern Art, and the National Centre for Visual Arts in Paris, among others.
The exhibition is presented chronologically, and the artist’s work is organized into chapters dedicated to each decade, with the exception of the heart of the exhibition, which is focused on the condemnation of violence and war. The relevance of Franta’s work revolves around his perceptiveness of beauty and the horrors of human existence which is often under the political, technological, or consumerist pressures of modern society. His canvases are not only testimonies of cruel injustice but also an appeal for solidarity with people in danger.
The exhibition is organized by the Prague Castle Administration.
Partner of the exhibition is the National Gallery Prague.
FRANTA - Culture at the Castle
The exhibition is organized by the Prague Castle Administration.
Partner of the exhibition is the National Gallery Prague.
FRANTA - Culture at the Castle
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