Lot 228

Jiří Kolář (1914 - 2002) HOMMAGE A ROUSSEAU

Jiří Kolář perceived mirrors as impartial witnesses of time. He incorporated them into his works as ironic objects, but he also admired their ability to reflect thoughts, fragments, and snippets of works, and he was fascinated by the metaphorical nature of broken mirrors. In his original collage, he addresses his sources of inspiration by confronting Henri Rousseau's dreamlike painting, which depicts Guillaume Apollinaire and his muse Marie Laurencin, both set in fantastical vegetation with carnations growing in front of them. The carnations were requested by Apollinaire himself. Henri Rousseau was fascinated by flowers and described his experiences in exotic greenhouses in the sense that when he looked at exotic flowers, he felt as if he were walking into a dream. The other world behind the mirror is Magritte's "The Ready-made Bouquet" (Le bouquet tout fait). René Magritte borrowed Flora from Botticelli's Primavera and placed her in front of a man wearing a bowler hat, thereby enhancing the visual paradox and inviting the viewer to reevaluate their perception of reality. Dedicated to Vladimír S.