Běla Kolářová (1923-2010)

VEGETÁŽ - CHRISTMAS

1961
Vintage gelatin silver photogram. 171x225 mm. Běla Kolářová had been inspired by her husband particularly in one point - thinking about things that had lost their primary purpose and became useless. She sought a new use for these abandoned obbjects and tried to bring them to life. Approximately in 1961, she began to create composed images without using the camera and began a new chapter of the photogram. She used old organic objects such as fish scales, peels from vegetables, bristles, feathers etc. as well as other objects like punched sheets, pieces of fabrics etc. and made new compositions from them and created so-called artificial negatives. Thanks to this method we can see, for example, abnormally enlarged fish scales with a surreal impression. Compare with: Běla Kolářová (exhibition catalogue), Museum Kampa, Prague 2008, p. 38. Condition A.