In the autumn of 2025, on the occasion of
the exhibition opening of this year’s Jindřich Chalupecký Award, the National
Gallery in Prague is opening up a new space, namely NGP: New Media. This
space shall be used twice a year to present one work from the collection of new
media. The exhibition programme of the space presents a video installation by
Jiří Příhoda, the laureate of the Jindřich Chalupecký Award in 1997, entitled The
Great 1930s (1994) from the Magnus Art collection, which the gallery
acquired last year as a donation from J&T Banka. The donated collection comprises
the works of twenty-eight laurates of the Jindřich Chalupecký Award.
The Great 1930s is one of Jiří Příhoda’s early works from the time of his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in the Monumental Art Studio led by Aleš Veselý. From the outset, the artist has used video projection within specific spatial situations, in which he works exclusively with archival or film materials. In the case of The Great 1930s he uses footage of the German transatlantic airships the Graf Zeppelin and Hindenburg, including the disaster of the latter in 1937. A sheet of duralumin, onto which the artist projects the scenes of the crash, refers to the pioneering duralumin construction of the airship. The modern, luxurious airships, which due to their iconic image were also exploited by Nazi propaganda, can be viewed as an embodiment of the ambivalent “great” 1930s that followed the Great Depression and preceded the Second World War.
Admission to the space NGP: New Media is free of charge up the stairs from the Small Hall of the Trade Fair Palace.
The Great 1930s is one of Jiří Příhoda’s early works from the time of his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in the Monumental Art Studio led by Aleš Veselý. From the outset, the artist has used video projection within specific spatial situations, in which he works exclusively with archival or film materials. In the case of The Great 1930s he uses footage of the German transatlantic airships the Graf Zeppelin and Hindenburg, including the disaster of the latter in 1937. A sheet of duralumin, onto which the artist projects the scenes of the crash, refers to the pioneering duralumin construction of the airship. The modern, luxurious airships, which due to their iconic image were also exploited by Nazi propaganda, can be viewed as an embodiment of the ambivalent “great” 1930s that followed the Great Depression and preceded the Second World War.
Admission to the space NGP: New Media is free of charge up the stairs from the Small Hall of the Trade Fair Palace.
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