František Janoušek - vendere e comprare opere

6 May 1890, Jesenný (Czechia) -  23 January 1943, Prague (Czechia)  

František Janoušek was a Czech Surrealist. Czech Surrealism emerged at a time when anxiety was sweeping Europe and was especially widespread in Bohemia. A new crisis of European civilisation was dawning.

František Janoušek was originally a teacher. He was conscripted in the First World War, and spent the years 1915 –1917 on the front before enrolling in the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague in 1918. After finishing his studies, he exhibited his work regularly at the Mànes Society, one of Prague's most important art associations.

Janoušek abandoned his initial Cubist style in favour of a more fantastical art, following his happy meanderings across Italy.

He took part in the exhibition 'Poetry 1932', and although he did not formally belong to the Surrealist group in Prague, formed in 1934, he continued to expand on the Surrealist theme independent of any group until the end of his life.

Czech Surrealism emerged during a time when European civilisation was facing a huge crisis.
Europe was assailed with angst, and Bohemia experienced this with particular intensity.
As early as the beginning of the 19th century, the search for cultural compensation for the political condition became a full-fledged movement in Bohemia and Slovakia. As a means of articulating this protest, Czech art defined itself as anti-Germanic, seeking contacts in the Mediterranean, and in particular in French culture. Surrealism, which emerged in Prague post-1930, became the reflection of the tragic face of Europe.

The Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia prevented Janoušek from exhibiting his later work to the public, although he continued to work with profound dedication until his premature death from illness in January 1943.

The Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna in Rome hosted an interesting group show on contemporary Czechoslovakian art in 1969 instigated by its director Palma Bucarelli and curated by Jindřich Chalupecký. The Galleria Schwarz in Milan opened an important retrospective dedicated to the work of František Janoušek in autumn of the same year, exhibiting fifteen of this visionary artist's most iconic paintings from the period of 1933–1942.