Bela Kolarova at Raven Row

Raven Row presents the first posthumous retrospective of the work of Czech artist Běla Kolářová (1923-2010). The show is both the first solo exhibition of the artist in the UK and the first major survey of her work outside the Czech Republic. From her trademark 'artificial negatives', 'pure light drawings' and 'derealised portraits' to her assemblages and collages, Běla Kolářová pioneered an art based on intimate objects often associated with domesticity and the feminine. The works on display will span Kolářová's career to include documentary photographs from the late 50s, camera-less experiments, 'arranged' photographs of objects and hair and assemblages from the 60s, as well as make-up drawings and assemblages from the 70s and 80s. While rooted in the context of the Cold War and exile, Běla Kolářová's practice is also closely linked to the life of her husband, the influential artist and poet Jiří Kolář, whose work overshadowed her own until its recent rediscovery. Despite the difficulties of exhibiting in her own country, she was able to develop a unique body of work, both formally and conceptually. As this exhibition will demonstrate, its legacy to the history of art - on both sides of the Iron Curtain - is anything but modest, unlike its materials and its author's personality.