Program

15 Jan 2015 - 6 Apr 2015

Běla Kolářová at Whitechapel Gallery

A major new exhibition tracing a century of Abstract art from 1915 to today will open at the Whitechapel Gallery in January and will feature 2 works by Czech artist Běla Kolářová. The exhibition brings together over 100 works by 80 modern masters and contemporary artists including Carl Andre, David Batchelor, Dan Flavin, Andrea Fraser, Piet Mondrian, Gabriel Orozco, Hélio Oiticica, Aleksander Rodchenko, Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Rosemarie Trockel, Theo Van Doesburg and Andrea Zittel, taking over six exhibition spaces across the gallery. The exhibition is curated by Iwona Blazwick OBE, Director, and Magnus af Petersens, Curator at Large, Whitechapel Gallery and will be entitled Adventures of the Black Square: Abstract Art and Society 1915 – 2015.

Běla Kolářová Born 1923, Terezín, Czechoslovakia (now Czech Republic) Died 2010, Prague, Czech Republic Kolářová used artefacts from daily life, assembled into works that question reality and artifice in art. Notable in her practice was camera-less photography, where mundane items were pressed into gel and an image made directly onto photographic paper.
In her later swatch pieces, an assemblage of objects on paper became the finished work. Her chosen raw materials often reflect life; the daily domestic and bodily rituals that women perform to engage with the outside world, together with themes of scarcity and regimentation. Her explorations into pattern-making and geometry also indicate concerns beyond issues of femininity.

Read more about the exhibition on Whitechapel Gallery webiste: http://www.whitechapelgallery.org/

Whitechapel Gallery press release:

• press-release-whitechapel-gallery-adventures-of-the-black-square-fina.pdf
  (209,12 KB)

Běla Kolářová Swatch of Cosmetics, 1964 Assemblage: collage, printing, pencil, samples, cosmetics, paper 39.9 × 39.9 cm Olomouc Museum of Art

Běla Kolářová Swatch of Snap Fasteners II, 1964 Assemblage: snap fasteners on cardboard 50 × 43 × 0.5 cm Estate of Běla Kolářová

Visitor Information

Opening times: Tuesday – Sunday, 11am – 6pm; Thursdays, 11am – 9pm.
Admission £10.95/£8.95 concs (including Gift Aid donation) £9.95/£7.95 concs (without Gift Aid).
Whitechapel Gallery, 77 – 82 Whitechapel High Street, London E1 7QX
Nearest London Underground Station:
Aldgate East, Liverpool Street, Tower Gateway DLR.
T + 44 (0) 20 7522 7888, info@whitechapelgallery.org, whitechapelgallery.org