ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses the seeming contradictions in approaching the notion of tradition in interwar art writing and shows that traditions had an important place in formulating not only the notion of modern Czech identity, but also that of modern Czech art. Rada’s criticism of the evocation of ancient Slavonic history could be related to the work of a number of Czech artists of the interwar period, but especially to that of Alfons Mucha, a graphic artist and painter who was born in southern Moravia and studied painting in Munich. As regards censorship and the regulation of the press, for example, publications like artistic journals were regulated by the Press Act passed under Austria-Hungary which remained in place during the interwar years. In an article from 1927 on reactionary tendencies in contemporary culture, Vincenc Kramar identified three main negative forces of ordinary life: backwardness, conservativism, and reactionism that also penetrated the field of art.
