ABSTRACT
Ivan Martin Jirous, nicknamed Magor, was a Czech art critic, poet, and artistic director of the legendary psychedelic rock group the Plastic People of the Universe. During the 1970s and 1980s he was one of the most important organizers of the Czech underground and publisher of the samizdat journal Vokno. He was imprisoned several times for his anti-communist stance. During the summer a travelling exhibition of Painting in the United States since 1945 arrived in Prague. The exhibits, assembled from diverse galleries and private collections by the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, were displayed in the Wallenstein Riding School. Lichtenstein was represented by a very fine collection (in contrast to Rosenquist, who came in a somewhat condensed version), showing the two registers of his work: paintings inspired by comics and remarkable mannerist landscapes, brought off with an acrobat’s daring on the very borderline of banality and kitsch.
