Czech Republic: Child prodigy performs at unique exhibit of Romani artist Rudolf Dzurko
The Museum of Romani Culture in the Czech city of Brno has prepared a retrospective exhibition of the art of the late Rudolf Dzurko, "Rudolf Dzurko’s Century of Catastrophes – Century of Miracles". The public will have a unique opportunity to view the works of one of the most appreciated Romani artists from 23 October to 20 March 2015.
The exhibition opened on Thursday 23 October 2014 at 16:00; the artist’s sons, Rudolf and Vít, were scheduled to attend. The brilliant nine-year-old pianist Radek Bagár, who has twice won first prize in the Amadeus international competition for young pianists under 11 and who won the Prague Junior Note competition 2012, was scheduled to perform; he also participated in the Mozart’s Children festival last year and in the project "Two Voices – Two Worlds – Two Cultures", and has performed with the Brno Philharmonic three times.
Given the fragility of Dzurko’s artworks, this will be the last opportunity to see the work of this famous Romani artist in such an extensive collection for some time. The exhibition features 39 of his glass paintings and eight of his wooden sculptures, most of them from the collection of the Museum of Romani Culture, some loaned by various private owners.
Glass factory worker
Rudolf Dzurko (1941 – 2013) came from a traditional Romani settlement in eastern Slovakia, and the postwar move of his family to northern Bohemia was a fundamental change in his life. "He worked as a laborer in glassmaking facotires and began using colored crushed glass – essentially a waste material – to create his own naive pictures," explains Jana Horváthová, curator of the exhibition and director of the Museum of Romani Culture.
Even though Dzurko first began exhibiting his work in the 1970s, he made his living as a mason or a stoker. After the Velvet Revolution of 1989, the Czech National Gallery bought some of his images, and today the value of his works is calculated in the millions of crowns.
Dzurko’s themes
The museum will be devoting extensive room to the works of Rudolf Dzurko, specifically, all of its temporary exhibition space. While the great hall on the ground floor will feature his images connected to the world of the Roma -their fantasies and follies, humanity and poverty, and their perpetual search for their place in the world – another floor will feature works inspired by women as lovers and mothers, a central motif of the artist’s consideration.
"Death is also a frequent subject of Dzurko’s work, he returns to it with an almost obsessive compulsiveness and a certain dose of trenchant humor. The rest of the works tell the stories of Romani people in the historical context of the 20th and 21st centuries as the artist himself perceived events," says Horváthová.
The museum director emphasized that this is probably the last opportunity for a long time to see such a broad sampling of Dzurko’s images, up to his very final work. As a result of the techniques he used, the pictures are very fragile and will be stored in a depository; many will probably need gradual restoration.
Rudolf Dzurko’s Century of Catastrophes – Century of Miracles (Století pohrom – století zázraků Rudolfa Dzurka)
