Eduard Ovčáček: Burnt Collages and Objects at Museum Kampa – An Exhibition of Lettrist Art

This exhibition at Museum Kampa showcases the lettrist works of Eduard Ovčáček, focusing on his burnt collages and objects featuring grapheme motifs like letters, numbers, and symbols. The display highlights his innovative approach to integrating writing and visual art, bridging modernist legacies with contemporary multimedia practices.

Eduard Ovčáček: Burnt Collages and Objects is an intimate exhibition at Museum Kampa dedicated to the artist's significant lettrist works, which incorporate grapheme motifs such as letters, emblems, numbers, and punctuation marks. Ovčáček, a versatile artist, pedagogue, and curator, belongs to a generation that revitalized Czech art in the 1960s, reconnecting with pre-war modernism. His oeuvre is inherently multimedia, encompassing graphic art, burnt collages, painting, sculpture, poetry, and photography. This exhibition specifically highlights works where graphemes became the primary vehicle for artistic communication, stemming from his early Art Informel pieces in the 1960s. The artist's engagement with letters intensified after he began teaching at Palacký University in Olomouc, where he acquired metal stamps. He developed techniques of burning these graphemes into various surfaces like wooden boards, objects, and paper, or pressing them into handmade pulp as relief imprints. Ovčáček's lettrist works were first presented in 1965 at the seminal exhibition 'Image and Letter' in Ostrava. Curator Ilona Víchová notes that for Ovčáček, these symbols represent not just visual elements but a deeper spiritual thematization, referring to human existence and the polarity of values. Although the exhibition focuses on burnt collages and wooden objects, it reveals a dialogue between gestural and rational approaches, illustrating that the grapheme for Ovčáček was a profound symbol of human existence and the fundamental principles of our world.

Information about ticketing and admission can be found on the museum's website. Visitors are encouraged to check for details regarding entry requirements and booking procedures.