The OKNA Gallery, located at the Hieronim Łopaciński Municipal Public Library in Lublin, invites you to an exhibition presenting the life and work of painter, writer and poet Josef Čapek, brother of the famous Czech writer Karl Čapek.
Josef Čapek (1887-1945) is mainly known for his long-time literary collaboration with his brother Karl Čapek, yet it was painting that was the main field of his activity. During his stay in Paris (1910-11), he encountered the contemporary avant-garde and developed a fascination for cubism. His drawings were published in various journals and magazines, including Lidove Noviny.
He and Karl wrote together a number of dramas and short stories. He also published his own literary works. Karl used to say that it was Josef who came up with the word ”robot” (first used in Karl’s drama ”R.U.R.”) to describe a mechanical device for performing automatic human tasks.
In the late 1930s Josef Čapek became an ardent opponent of Nazism and Adolf Hitler. In the wake of Czechoslovakia’s occupation by the Nazi, he was arrested and sent to a concentration camp. He died in Bergen-Belsen just before the end of the war.
The exhibition presents Josef Čapek's paintings, literary works and life: his youth, university years, early work and connections with the antebellum avant-garde, professional life as well as his struggle against the totalitarian Nazi regime that brought him a tragic end in a concentration camp. The exhibition’s graphic design was created by Pavel Bosák, while the scenario of the exhibition was written by the staff of the Karl Čapek Museum in Stara Hut and translated into Polish by the Czech Centre in Warsaw.
The event is organized in collaboration with the Czech Centre in Warsaw.
The exhibition is held in the Library’s corridor at the Center for Art Activities (1 floor, Peowiaków 12).