FROM WORK TO ENTERTAINMENT. Leisure and art in the 19th century

21/02/2020 to 27/09/2020
výstavní síň „13“
Autor: 
Roman Prahl
Kurátor: 
Petr Jindra

This exhibition is part of the annual Pilsen Symposium on 19th-Century Issues, where the theme for the symposium’s fortieth year is the greater leisure time enjoyed by various strata of society in the 19th century.

Held at the “13” exhibition hall, the exhibition will present well-known and less familiar artists from a new perspective, showing how they depicted people’s lives and pleasures in approximately 90 paintings, drawings, prints and photographs, arranged thematically and with brief introductory texts. The exhibits have mostly been chosen from the Gallery of West Bohemia in Pilsen, the National Gallery in Prague and other Prague-based public and private collections.

The seven parts of the exhibition relate to key aspects in the iconography of leisure: Walks, Excursions and Spas / Daydreaming, Relaxation, Idling and Boredom / Maternity and Childhood / Holidays, Celebrations and Entertainment / Eroticism: Restrained or Exuberant? / From the Pub to the Café and Back / Maintaining the Individual and Collective Physique: the Joy of Exercise.

Two smaller parts of the exhibition highlight popular forms of entertainment at the time: magazines and optical illusions, and tableaux vivants and photography as an event.
The exhibition will be accompanied by a catalogue in the standard format for the annual symposium’s exhibition catalogues.

The exhibition will be held in collaboration with the National Gallery in Prague.