Czeching Out-- Last Post of the Trip

Sunday April 9 was our last full day in Prague as we head back to Toronto early on Monday April 10.
It was a beautiful, warm, sunny day with a high of 19C.  A good way to end our week in Prague.  We took the Metro from our stop -Jiriho z Podebrad to the Old Town Square area.

Our Metro stop

Alain spotted these heritage streetcars- special occasion

Our first stop was the Jerusalem Synagogue. The synagogue was built in 1905-06 and has a Art Nouveau Moorish style.  It replaced three smaller synagogues that had been demolished during the reconstruction of the old Jewish quarter.  During World War II, the synagogue was used as a warehouse, and as a result, was protected from destruction.

Outside of the synagogue

Many beautiful stained glass windows inscribed with donor's names

Inside of synagogue - lots of Islamic arches!!

Ceiling stained glass

There are two permanent exhibits on the second floor.  The first exhibit is entitled "The Jewish Community of Prague from 1945 to the Present Day".  It was a fascinating account of the history of the Jewish Community post war, using unique photographs and documents.  There was a lot of persecution of Jews under the communist regime.  Documents brought to light the details of the Czechoslovak secret police operations against individuals and the Jewish Community itself.  There were periods of hope and periods of despair.  A fascinating history with a lot of detail that we had not been aware of.

The second exhibit was entitled "Jewish Monuments of Bohemia and Their Restoration after 1989".  The Jewish Community of Prague is the main investor in the restoration of the Jewish monuments and the exhibit of before and after photos shows the effort to preserve important cultural, historical and architectural heritage of the Jewish community.  Some of the synagogues date back to the 16th century.  The Jewish Community owns 30 synagogues and 175 Jewish cemeteries in Bohemia.  Many sites were demolished, or left to deteriorate during the Communist era.  Only after November 1989 was it possible to engage systematically in the documentation, restoration and preservation of the remaining heritage sites.  About 200 synagogues and 370 cemeteries have been preserved to date.   The exhibit detailed these restorations.

Example of a before and after cemetery and chapel

After our visit to the Jerusalem Synagogue, we went to an exhibit of paintings and drawings of Russian artist Eduard Steinberg  (1937-2012) called "From Moscow to Paris".  The exhibit was in the Prague City Gallery located in a building known as The Stone Bell House.  The history of the building dates back to the second half of the 13th century.  It had been the residence of the future Queen Elisabeth of Bohemia after her marriage to John of Luxembourg.  It went through a number of reconstructions.  The last reconstruction finished in 1988 and it became of home of the Prague City Gallery.

Outside of Stone Bell House

The exhibit was a collaboration between the Prague City Gallery and the Wiesbaden Museum.  It was a fabulous exhibit about an artist we didn't know about.   Steinberg was born in Moscow, the son of poet, translator and artist Arkady Steinberg.  Shortly after his birth, his father was arrested by the Stalin regime and thrown into prison.  Upon his release in 1954, the family settled in Tarusa, a small town which became the home of many artists and intellectuals.  Steinberg's artistic talent was encouraged by his father.  He moved to Moscow in 1962 and was part of the nonconformist movement.  In the 1970s, he began to create his own version of geometrical abstraction, following in the tradition of the Suprematist movement.  He used the cross and triangle as Christian symbols  In the 1990s, he moved to Paris, but continued to return to Russia in the summers to find inspiration in the countryside.  He bought a house in Tarusa.

His work was brought to public attention in Czechoslovakia in the 1960s by art historian Jindrich Chalupecky.  His first retrospective show in Moscow took place after the fall of the Berlin wall.

Composition 1983

Steinberg's compositions of geometric forms owe much to Kazimir Malevich, who conceived of art as a spiritual activity whose purpose was to free man from the tether of natural forms and give him a new vision of the world.

                                                This picture was an homage to Malevich

He created his "Village Series" paintings  in the 1980a during and after his summer months spent in his old village in Russia.   Steinberg commented that "in the church, there are obituaries, which I tried to reproduce in art."

Compositon-Born/Died 1986

Composition Man and Fish 1987


There were a number of abstractions from the 1990s in the exhibit.

Composition 1998

Composition 1997

Composition The Black Month of September 2001

Composition - Rene Magritte 1998

In the last room of the exhibit, there was a display of four very large paintings entitled Earth- Structure-Sphere-Light (four part series) 1992.  These paintings had been commissioned by the R&V Insurance Group in Wiesbaden and brought his work to the attention of a German audience.

Earth

Structure

Light

Sphere

We both really enjoyed the exhibit and it was beautifully displayed in the Old Stone Bell House.

After the exhibit, we stopped at One Sip, another small cafe.  They were serving Round Hill beans from London England.

At One Sip with the Spirit machine (some Toronto coffee shops have this machine)

We went to cross the river at a bridge just north of the Charles Bridge.  We passed the home of the Czech Philharmonic, celebrating its 121st season.

Home of the Czech Philharmonic  - 121st season!!

Cherry blossoms--- there are a lot of parks and green space in Prague

We were near the Lennon Wall so went to check it out.  Since the 1980s, it has been filled with John Lennon-inspired graffiti and pieces of lyrics from Beatles' songs.  In 1988, the wall was a source of irritation for the communist regime.  Young Czechs would write grievances on the wall.

Interestingly, on November 17, 2014, the 25th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution, the wall was painted over in pure white by a group of art students, with only the text "wall is over".  Needless to say, the Lennon graffiti is back today.

At the Lennon wall

The art in 2017

Large crowd checking out the Lennon wall

We walked by a english-language bookstore called "Shakespeare and Sons", clearly a take-off on the famous Paris bookstore Shakespeare & Co.

Shakespeare and Sons in Prague- English language bookstore 

We walked back to the Museum Kampa and in addition to the Babies, which we had earlier seen, we passed these penguins on the water.

Penguins beside the Museum Kampa

Babies again

The sculpture garden portion of the museum was accessible to the public.  Some interesting pieces.

Witness/Unknown Witness/Narrow Man - Olbram Zoubek (b. 1926) 1964 - 1967

Rider- Michal Gabriel (b. 1960) 2008-09

We headed over to the Cafe Savoy for their lovely potato mushroom soup and a piece of apple strudel.

In front of wine room alcove and decorated ceiling

View of Cafe Savoy

We crossed back over the Vltava river - lots of people out on the river as it was a warm day.

Out on the river 

View of the Dancing House from the other side of the river

Alain on the bridge

Lots of boats on the river

View of Church of Our Lady Before Tyn in the background in Old Town

On the bridge- hard work

National Theatre

We passed a building that we later learnt belonged to the Czech Bar Association.  There was a plaque commemorating the start of the Velvet Revolution of November 17, 1989.

The building was closed on Sunday, but there was a small photo exhibit of the events of 1989.

We walked back to the Metro and passed an installation where elements of the head move, by David Cerny entitled "K" done in 2014.

K- David Cerny 2014

                                                Head swivelling - picture taken a few minutes later

We headed back to the apartment for a fish dinner.  It was a great last day to our adventure.  We would highly recommend visiting Prague.  Definitely, give it a week to explore.

We had a long day heading back to Toronto (up at 4:00 a.m., 7:00 a.m. flight to Amsterdam (arriving at 8:30 a.m.), three hour layover and the flight at 11:30 a.m. to Toronto (arriving 1:45 p.m. Toronto time).   Thanks to everyone for joining us on our adventure in Greece and Prague. 

Visit to the Mucha Museum- Quiet Day

It was a much nicer day on Saturday April 8.  Sun and cloud and a high of 14C.  We started our day with a visit to the Farmers Market.  What we have found interesting is that there are different vendors there each day with not a lot of overlap.  The coffee vendor we had visited on Wednesday never appeared again nor did one of the bakeries we had gone to earlier in the week.  On Saturday, there were more vendors selling prepared foods than earlier in the week.  There was also a beer tent, some tables set up and a stage in the park.  Some of the shops on the square had small tables outside their shops and people were already eating and drinking in the late morning when we were there.

The Streetburger folks were busy

Lots of sausages

A number of wine and prosecco vendors 

Small tables and tents in the square near the market area

We stopped at the small fish shop on the square where we have been buying our fish.  They were cooking salmon burgers, so Alain and I had them for lunch.  Very tasty.  It was nice to sit outside in the sun after the cold and rain of Friday.

Rybistro fish shop 

Inhaling the salmon burger

We stopped at the French bakery on the square for a baguette and then stopped at MamaCoffee for coffee.  There was a small lineup for coffee.

Alain with his MamaCoffee 

On the way back to the apartment to drop our purchases, we stopped at the fabulous bakery Antoninovo to get some treats.  Another line up--- everyone was out on Saturday.

At the bakery counter

We walked to the Metro, and mistakenly went in the wrong direction.  We got off at the next stop, called Flora, which was a pretty pink.  We then took the Metro back to Old Town.

Flora subway stop

Our destination was the Mucha Museum, a private museum dedicated to the work of Alfons Mucha (known as Alphonse Mucha) (1860-1939).  There was a good introductory film in English and many of his wonderful art nouveau posters, paintings and decorative panels were displayed in the Museum.  As well, there were sketches, other memorabilia and photographs that he had taken of his models and others.  

Outside the Mucha Museum

Mucha was born in 1860 in the town of Ivancice, Moravia.  He had drawn from an early age and was determined to be an artist. In 1871, he was a chorister at the Cathedral of St. Peter and Paul in Brno, where he was first exposed to Baroque Art.  In 1879, he moved to Vienna to work for a major Viennese theatrical design company. When his employer's business was destroyed by fire in 1881, he returned to Moravia to do freelance decorative and portrait painting.  He was hired by a Count to decorate a Castle with murals and the Count was so impressed that he agreed to sponsor Mucha's formal training at the Munich Academy of Fine Arts. Mucha later moved to Paris in 1887 and continued his studies there.  

Mucha then got his big break.  Around Christmas 1894, Mucha happened to go into a print shop where there was an unexpected need for a new advertising poster for a play featuring Sarah Bernhardt.  Mucha volunteered to produce a lithographed poster within two weeks and on January 1, 1895 his poster for the play Gismonda was posted in the city.  It attracted a lot of positive attention.  Bernhardt was so pleased with the success of the first poster that she began a six-year contract with Mucha.   

Mucha was very prolific and produced a flurry of posters, paintings, book illustrations, designs for jewelry and theatre sets.  His work was initially named "The Mucha Style", but became known as Art Nouveau.  His early work featured beautiful young women in flowing robes often surrounded by flowers.  In contrast with other poster makers, he used pale pastels.

His work was shown at the 1900 Universal Exposition in Paris.  Mucha tried to distance himself from the "Art Nouveau" label, as he maintained that his paintings were entirely a product of himself and Czech art.  Mucha lived in New York from 1906-1910.  He wanted to get money to fund his nationalistic projects.  In 1910, he left New York and settled in Prague.  He created murals for the Municipal House.  He also designed postage stamps and banknotes for the new Czech government after WWI.   His masterpiece The Slav Epic, a cycle of 20 large canvases painted from 1910-1928, depicted the history and mythology of the Czech and Slavic people.  In 1928, he donated the paintings to Prague on condition that the city build a special pavilion for it.  This did not happen.   

Mucha's Slav nationalism and Jewish roots made him a target of the Gestapo after the German invasion of Czechoslovakia in March 1939.  He was one of the first persons arrested by the Gestapo.  During his interrogation, he became ill with pneumonia.  He was eventually released, but died on July 14, 1939 due to a lung infection.  The Slav Epic was rolled up and hidden and re-exhibited for the first time in 1963.   His son Jiri (1915-1991) devoted much of his life to writing about him and bringing attention to his artwork.   

The Slav Epic was displayed at a chateau in the Moravian town of Moravsky Krumlov until 2012 when the paintings were moved and are now displayed at the Veletrzni Palace, in an exhibition organized by the National Gallery in Prague.  The move was very controversial and John Mucha, his grandson, who manages the Mucha Museum, recently sued the City of Prague to stop a two year Asian tour of the works, stating they are too fragile to be moved.   My understanding is that the lawsuit was not successful and that The Slav Epic is now being exhibited in Tokyo, the first leg of the tour.

The poster that started it all- Sarah Bernhardt in Gismonda

Zodiac 1896

La Samaritaine 1897

1899

Flower 1897

The Four Arts- 1898

After his return to Prague, Mucha turned to posters portraying Slavic themes.  He also worked on The Slav Epic.

Moravian Teachers Choir poster 1911

Lottery of the Union of Southwestern Moravia- 1912 (supporting Czech education to counter policy of Germanization during Austro-Hungarian Empire)  Figure in background is Cechia, symbolic mother of Czech nation

Poster Advertising the first showing of The Slav Epic- Jaroslava, his daughter, was the model

There were also a number of photographs that Mucha had taken that were very well composed.  We really enjoyed our visit to the museum and have a new appreciation of his work.

After the museum we wandered some more and ran into a parade heading for the Old Town Square.

More workers 

Everyone loves a parade

...with cheerleaders

...and batons

We passed the Cubism Museum and the Grand Cafe Orient, which we had visited earlier in the week.  We located the Black Madonna that gave the building its name:  The House of the Black Madonna.  The statue was high up on a column.

At the House of the Black Madonna (Cubism Museum and Grand Orient Cafe)

Old Town Square had a large stage set up-- seemed to be a pre-Easter celebration.

We were looking for some Czech designers shops but stopped at an interesting clothing shop called "Egoist"-- Alain got a very cool top.  Lots of German, Italian and Spanish lines- a number that I didn't know.  Quite pricey, but definitely some gems.

We decided to try our luck at Lokal for dinner.  We got there at around 7:00 p.m.  The place was packed and there were a lot of reserved tables.  Both locals and visitors eat there, as the menu specials change daily, the food is good, and the prices are very reasonable.  We had a 1/2 pint of very good Pilsner beer (no preservatives added) at the bar.  We ended up talking to three folks from Toronto (although one now lives in LA).  Getting a table to order food was a bit of a challenge but we finally got a table at 7:45.

With beer at the counter waiting for a table

 The restaurant is very long and narrow with the look of a traditional tavern, though it has been modernized.

One wall- Hotel Stal Inn.... hmmm

We both ordered the roast duck with red cabbage and a side of potato dumplings.  The food was very good  and the beer was delicious.

Alain and the duck

We walked back to the Metro and I took some night shots at Old Town Square.  Lots of people  out on a Saturday night and the weather was warmer.

Old Town Square

Kiosks stay open late

Decorated building in Old Town Square

We had tea and dessert at the apartment.  Sunday April 9 is the last day of our vacation.  I may do my last post of the blog on Sunday evening or it may have to wait until our return on Monday April 10.  We have a very early 7:00 a.m. flight to Amsterdam, a three hour wait, and then our return flight to Toronto.  Lukas is picking us up at 5:00 a.m!  We have really enjoyed our week in Prague, exploring many different neighbourhoods, taking in all the beautiful buildings, and enjoying its rich history.