Veronika Červená

Mgr. Veronika Červená is an art historian and art curator. She began her studies in the field of history of art at the Faculty of Arts at Charles University. She completed her bachelor's studies with the thesis dealing with contemporary reflection of futurism in Czech art in the period 1909–1914. She continued her master's studies at Charles University and the subject of her diploma thesis was Jiří Kotalík and the United States of America. It was this topic that became essential for her and became her current main research interest. She currently works as an assistant to the curator of the Lobkowicz Collections. Due to the nature of the collections, she not only deals with modern and contemporary art, but also with the Renaissance and Baroque periods. An important part of her work is primarily research into collection objects, but also the preparation of exhibitions and lectures for the public.

Jindřich Chalupecký and Jiří Kotalík

In his dissertation, she focuses on the relationship between two great figures in the history of Czech art, Jindřich Chalupecký (1910–1990), curator and art and literary critic and theorist, and Jiří Kotalík (1920–1996), art historian and art critic, whose name is associated with a long-term position as the director of the National Gallery. The first contacts of the two mentioned men took place through the circle of Skupina 42 (Group 42), in which they both worked as theorists. Although the life paths of Chalupecký and Kotalík differed significantly in the second half of the 20th century, Kotalík was active in the official sphere, in addition to the aforementioned post, also at the Institute for Theory and History of Art of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences. Chalupecký, on the other hand, was forced to retire after 1969 and had limited opportunities to publish his texts. Nevertheless, Chalupecký and Kotalík were united by a lifelong friendship and an effort to promote Czechoslovak art in the world.