Prague Journal

Wednesday, March 9, 2005.

More snow today – and sleet. It’s pretty dreary, and spring is nowhere in sight. Rick went to the dentist this morning. He was glad to find someone who could reattach the crown that had come adrift Monday evening. It only needs to last until we return to Denver. Matt and I took the tram to Barrandov just to see the city, and then rode back to the Lesser Town square, Malostranske námĕstí. We went in St. Nicholas Church – Matt had forgotten quite how magnificent it is – and were able to go to the top balcony (two flights up) to see a set of 10 paintings by Karel Škreta. The paintings represent the Passion Cycle, and were created during 1673-74.
We then headed across the bridge toward Old Town, and went into the gallery at the Rudolfinum, where we stayed for quite awhile at an Alen Diviš exhibit. Diviš had left Prague for Paris in 1924, at that time the capital of modern art. He was accused of spying and spent several months incarcerated in solitary confinement at La Sante prison. After passing through concentration camps in France, Morocco, and Martinique, he found refuge in New York. He returned to Czechoslovakia in 1947, but found himself destitute and marginalized when the Iron Curtain fell in 1948, and died in 1956. His work was influenced by Cubism and Expressionism, and was primarily based on a powerful preoccupation with existential themes. The paintings done after his imprisonment are particularly moving, as are some of the illustration he did for Edgar Alan Poe and Karel Jaromir Erben.
We had dinner with Eva, Hunsa, Suza and Hunsek at U Pĕtniku, after which the three teenagers went off to a music gig and the four adults retired to the Jarosovi house for dessert and tea. Matt enjoyed spending time with the kids. While he wasn’t enthralled with the amateur musicians (among them, Hunsek’s friends), he enjoyed the “underground” ambience of the venue and the camaraderie of the kids. By the time we headed home, the weather had gotten sufficiently cold to allow falling snow to accumulate.

posted by JWinn @ 11:18 PM