Ladislav Guderna — Proposed Wall Design for the Czechoslovak Pavilion at EXPO 67 in Montreal & Design Proposal for Montreal

The Nitra Gallery collection includes 19 works by Ladislav Guderna. This virtual gallery text describes two of the artist’s paintings (design proposals) related to the legendary Expo 67 in Montreal. The Canadian convention was one of the most historically significant presentations of Czechoslovakia. The exhibition focused on the artistic factor of the presentation as well as the purpose of presenting our culture, with the Czechoslovak Pavilion being one of the most reflected ones (Czechoslovakia had already presented itself at other world expos, e.g. the Brussels Expo ’58, the Osaka Expo ’70). [1] Unfortunately, not much of the originally presented material has been preserved. Most of the artworks and design fixtures have remained in Canada and we can reflect on the exhibition only with written documentation, design proposals, original sketches and photographs. The few remaining pieces left were used to create a project by Slovak Design Center titled Exhibitionmat: the Czechoslovak Pavilion at Expo 67 Montreal (Satelit Gallery SDC, 2018). [2] Many artists from different branches participated at the exhibition. 

Ladislav Guderna presented his wall paintings (stuccos). The exhibition design proposals reflect the artist’s approach. Ladislav Guderna started to work with collages in the 1960s. He used image clippings, changed their original purpose and incorporated them into his made-up fantasy world. The artist’s language utilises his sometimes even decadent approach to history, irony, pleasantness, stillness, metaphor and peace. He creates space without time. His works often feature sensual headless bodies and bodiless heads full of mystery. “Guderna’s world is full of various female heads that fill its emptiness with joy and humour and create an antipode to the male principle and sometimes they even create their own, often misunderstood world.” [3] Guderna’s women are sometimes dressed, other times they are naked, but they are always aware of their feminity, even when the artist loses their heads and replaces them with a heart, an animal, zoomorphic or other motive (O -194 Design Proposal for Montreal, 1966). And when he finds the missing head, he puts it on an electric torso of a cycle-dove and props its hair with a horse-face crown (O – 436 Proposed Wall Design for the Czechoslovak Pavilion at the World Expo in Montreal 1964-1965). The proposed designs carry traces of decorativism, refinement and wit and connect seemingly unrelated things with the easiness of a large number of connotations. “Ladislav Guderna decorated the walls of the Old Prague’s Restaurant with fantasy-like colourful stucco illustrating a motive of card games that elaborated on the traditional interest of the Czechoslovak modern art in surrealism. The authors of the interior of the so-called Slovak Restaurant (the correct title is the Bratislava Restaurant or simply Bratislava) were architects Vojtech Vilhan and Ferdinand Milučký. They were inspired by the synthesis of functionalism and elements of the Slovak folk art and architecture. The restaurant interior incorporated many references to folk architecture and art, particularly in utilising wood furniture, in the tectonics of the restaurant’s massive joists and the walls made of planks.” [4]

— Ľudmila Kasaj Poláčková

Sources
[1] Available at:  https://www.webumenia.sk/clanok/montreal-expo-67 (Accessed on May 10, 2021).
[2] More information about the SDC exhibition at: https://www.scd.sk/?vystavy-satelit&sprava=automat-na-vystavu-ceskoslovensky-pavilon-na-expo-67-v-montreale (Accessed on May 10, 2021).
[3] KISZ-SZÉMAN, ŽOFIA: Ladislav Guderna – Lietajúca ryba [Flying Fish]. Bratislava: GMB, 2012, p. 77.
[4] More information about EXPO MONTREAL 1967 available at: http://magdamag.sk/2017/11/08/slovencina-dejiny-ceskoslovensko-na-expo-67-v-montreale/ (Accessed on May 10, 2021).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDz3PK8RcS8 (Expo Montreal 1967 Documentary, Accessed on May 10, 2021).