HR Giger - Invitation to the exhibition “Metamorphoses”

Thursday, 05 October 2023 16:54
Written by Portal Editor

After the first surprise due to our invitation to the exhibition “Metamorphoses”, i.e. to the works of the Swiss artist and filmmaker HR Giger, our research began immediately, especially since the location of the exhibition was completely unknown to us: Hluboká nad Vltavou in the Czech Republic.

We were definitely familiar with HR Giger, because as music lovers we still remember the album covers by Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Floh de Cologne, Magma, the Dead Kennedys, Debbie Harry, Böhse Onkelz and many others, especially of course also the legendary microphone stand of Korn singer Jon Davis.

So we were full of anticipation and excited about the invitation from gallery management director Ales Seifert to the castle riding school in Hluboká nad Vltavou, organized by Daiana Hrosh and MgA. Paulina Skavova.

Our heartfelt thanks to the people mentioned for the invitation, the organization and the inspiring tour of the “Metamorphoses” exhibition.

But now first to the locations in Hluboká nad Vltavou.

Hluboká nad Vltavou and the castle riding school

The town of Hluboká nad Vltavou developed as early as the 14th century under the famous King Charles IV, who made Prague his capital but regularly stayed in Hluboká nad Vltavou. The place then became the preferred residential town of the Schwarzenberg family, who built one of their many castles here, also known in German as Frauenberg Castle. There was initially an early Gothic castle on the property from the second half of the 13th century. Hluboká Castle was converted into a Renaissance castle in the 1580s by the architect Baldassare Maggi. In the second third of the 19th century, Johann Adolf II, Prince of Schwarzenberg, decided to redesign Hluboká in the Romantic style. The project, which belongs to the architectural historical context of the Castle Renaissance, was developed by the Viennese architect Franz Beer, who led the construction work, which began in 1840, for twenty years. The old buildings were demolished and a picturesque Tudor Gothic castle was built in their place. Ferdinand Deworetzky completed the sophisticated external and internal design in 1871. A megalomaniac copy of Windsor Castle was created.

Walls and ceilings are lined with fine woods and rich carvings. The most valuable pieces of furniture are housed in the breakfast lounge. Princess Eleonore's bedroom and dressing room, the so-called Hamilton Cabinet and the reading room are decorated with pictures by European masters from the 16th to 18th centuries as well as chandeliers, vitrages and faience from Delft. The portraits on the walls represent the most important representatives of the von Schwarzenberg family. The largest hall is the library with a coffered ceiling that was brought to Hluboká from the ancestral castle in Schwarzenberg. The Hluboká Armory Chamber is of excellent quality. In the neo-Gothic chapel there is an altar with a large late Gothic ark.

The South Bohemian Aleš Gallery (Alšova Jihočeská galérie) is now located in the former castle riding hall. This impressive gallery is located on the grounds of the 13th-century neo-Gothic Hluboká Castle Riding School and is one of the most beautiful museums in the Czech Republic. It began its activity on January 1, 1953 and was named after the South Bohemian painter Mikoláš Aleš (1852-1913).

The Alšova Jihočeská galérie, or AJG for short, has one of the most complete collections of medieval art in the Czech Republic as a permanent exhibition. The exhibition brings together artistic masterpieces created in southern and southwestern Bohemia between 1275 and 1530; it contains more than 150 panel paintings and sculptures. The collection is evidence of the high level of Czech medieval art from South and Southwest Bohemia (excellent works of early and high Luxembourg Gothic), work of the Master of the Vyšebrod Cycle or the Master of the Trebon Altar, the Fine Style, late Gothic sculptures of the Master of Mourning from Žebrák, Danube School, etc.)

In 1967, a branch was founded - the AJG ceramics department, which is located in the renovated building of the former castle brewery in Bechyně. The renovated Wortner House was opened in České Budějovice in 1993 for exhibition purposes. It is a Gothic building restored in the Renaissance style.

The AJG always offers a large selection of exhibitions from its own collections as well as projects that were created in collaboration with external curators, galleries and private institutions. There is also a rich accompanying program of guided tours, lecture series and concerts. A newly founded education center organizes creative educational programs for children and young people, art studios and teachers, including the current exhibition of HR Giger's life's work "Metamorphosis".