The Magic of Prague: The City and the Czech Cultural Revival by Gavin Plumley
As a part of the Hasburg Empire, Prague was beloved of kings and princes. During the 19th century, however, the Czechs sought to reclaim the city for their own. Looking back at their roots and mythology, the Czech people imagined a new future through art, entirely reshaping cultural movements including Romanticism and Symbolism in specifically patriotic ways. Looking at painters such as Alfons Much, Otakar Lebeda and Jakub Schikaneder and composers like Bedrich Smetana and Antonin Dvorak, as well as their forward-thinking literary and architectural contemporaries, this contextual talk shows how the Czechs reclaimed both country and capital by cultural means.
Gavin Plumley
Gavin is a writer and broadcaster, appearing on BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio 4 and contributing to newspapers, magazines and opera and concert programmes worldwide. He lectures widely about the culture of Central Europe during the 19th and 20th centuries. Recent talks include the Royal Opera House, the National Gallery, the National Trust, the National Theatre, the British Museum, the V and A, the Southbank Centre, the Tate and the Neue Galerie, New York, as well as for the history of art societies and The Art Fund.