As a part of the corporate art program European Property Development (EPD) and CEE-Invest v.o.s. exhibit contemporary Czech art in the Praha City Center.

Tribute to Mozart
Czech-Dutch Art Project

   

Maya Alexandrovna, Eva Šlachtová - painters
Linde Müller, Nadine Eman, Jeroen Hulshof - piano

A Czech-Dutch Art Project called 'Tribute to Mozart' has opened at the Museum of the City of Prague, under the patronage of the Royal Netherlands Embassy in Prague. The project presents art works by Maya Alexandrovna and graphic artist Eva Šlachtová, portraying musical themes in an unusual way.

Internationally-renowned artist Maya Alexandrovna has invited graphic artist Eva Šlachtová and Dutch musical conservatory professor Pierre Ruhlmann and his students to take part in a joint homage to the music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in the year of the 250th anniversary of his birth. The Homage to Mozart project, which brings together music and art, was opened on Monday 18 September in the Museum of the City of Prague to the sound of Mozart's works. The pictures by Maya Alexandrovna and graphic artist Eva Šlachtová are a vivid example of the way in which Mozart's music inspires the artistic imagination.
The patron of the project, part of the cultural cooperation between European Union member states, is the Royal Netherlands Embassy in Prague.
The exhibition in the Museum of the City of Prague will be open to the public until 27 September, and will then continue in the Praha City Center building at Klimentská ulice 46, Prague 1 from 1-15 October.

Maya Alexandrovna has been working solidly for three years on the group of fourteen paintings displayed. The Goddess of Snakes, The Queen of the Night, Nut, When the Gods Play, Childeric's Bees, Memories of Atlantis and other paintings all use the classic technique of oil painting. They are inspired by meeting people from different cultures, and the legacy of ancient civilisations; by classical music, but also by the rock of the 1970s and 1980s. The large paintings are full of symbolism, but also of a sense of the grotesque and of detachment. In the background, moreover, there is always the issue of the freedom of the individual. 'Everyone has the right to his or her own opinion and to learn freely,' she says. 'I value the individual, not the crowd. I'm an eternal rebel against all dogma, schema and religious systems. In life, I'm interested in the moments when fairly small things influence basic things!'
Although the artist and illustrator - who uses Maya as her artistic name - has lived peacefully in her native Prague for a number of years, she has also spent a large part of her life overseas. She studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Australia and Indonesia are the countries to which she has most frequently returned, both on working and private visits. She has exhibited in the US, Australia, Germany and France, and has worked on a number of animated films, including for the BBC. She has won a number of awards for her designs and illustrations.
After returning to the Czech lands she has focused on illustrating children's books and magazines, for publishers including Albatros.

Eva Šlachtová was born in Brno in 1929. After graduating from the School of Applied Arts in Prague she focused on drawing, illustration and graphic art. The central theme of her work is the music and city of Prague. She has exhibited in the Czech Republic, France, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Germany, the US, Italy and Poland. Her graphic art has won awards in Sweden, Poland and the Czech Republic and is represented in both public and private collections.

Project partners:

CEE Invest, member of Hannover Leasing Group
Praha City Center
Klimentská 46
Praha 1, 110 02
(+420) 221 851 110
www.epd.cz

Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands
www.netherlandsembassy.cz
Gotthardská 6/27
Praha 6, Bubeneč
(+420) 233 015 200
nlgovpra@ti.cz

Museum of the City of Prague
Na Poříčí 52,
Praha 8
sucha@muzeumprahy.cz
www.muzeumprahy.cz

Exhibition opening – Maya Lukas (EPD), Bohumila Křížová. Muzeum of city of Prague

Hilde Jansen, Cultural Counselor of the Netherlands Embassy in Prague

From left – Maya Alexandrovna, Eva Šlachtová

Nadine Eman, Jeroen Hulshof

Project visitors

From left – Hilde Jansen, Eva Šlachtová, Maya Alexandrovna

Project visitors

For information and individual tours, please contact
Maja Lukas - Art Exhibition curator
EPD
CUM ARTE, spol. s.r.o.
Petrske namesti 1
tel: +420 222 311 455
e-mail: MLukas@cumarte.cz

Address:

Praha City Center, Klimentská 46, 110 02 Praha 1