The exhibition entitled Josef Váchal: The Magic of Seeking is focused on the inspiration drawn by Josef Váchal (1884–1969) from sources involving elements of the magic and the occult. The display relates the output of this so far underappreciated solitary figure of Czech art to more general tendencies in modern art towards applying esoteric impulses reaching beyond the mere employment of outward magic attributes and paraphernalia. Váchal was strongly influenced by occultism and the magic at large in his early period when his style was defined by the use of a spectacular and straightforward occult aesthetic corresponding with the idioms of Symbolism and Decadence.
Apart from this aspect, the exhibition also aspires to point to various underlying sources of Váchal’s interest in the esoteric, exemplified among other things by an assortment of seemingly marginal, previously unknown manuscripts from his posthumous papers. Here, Váchal’s texts, drawings, paintings, sculptures, and original letter designs demonstrate that the key lesson he drew from his study of occultism did not concern anything like an instrumentalization of the magic, but rather related to the more abstract issue of a specific approach to the element of symbol as part of a magic action. The pursuits of Váchal’s life and work were actually not centered around the quest of the magic and its effects. In his case, the magic element was synonymous with his creative exploration and articulation of an individual artistic idiom.
