A few months ago, we received a collage by the renowned Czech artist Jiří Kolář (1914–2002) as a gift from a friend of the Schwules Museum. The postcard-sized unique piece depicts a vintage car (probably a Ford Stanley Steamer) with a historic Augsburg “Anlehenschein” (mortgage certificate) from 1864 visible through a cut-out in the center.
Kolář is considered a pioneer of various collage techniques, “who likes to create new connections with humor and criticism using material, titles, and motifs” — in this respect, the work is quite typical, wrote expert art historian Anke Schlecht from the Institute for Modern Art in Nuremberg.
Nevertheless, the work posed a mystery for us. The artist had actually used the back as a postcard, writing a thank-you note to the “friend” from whose collection we received the work. The two had met in Paris in the 1980s. In addition, Kolář had given the collage a title on the back, which was unusual for him: “Voiture saphique / Lesbické Auto.” How the lesbian theme fits in with the collage of vintage cars and loan notes can only be understood when you hold the work in your hands — because the first layer (car) is only glued on one side, the second (the certificate) is loosely tucked behind it, and only when you peek behind it does the actual front of the postcard come into view: a reproduction of Gustave Courbet’s 1866 oil painting “Le Sommeil”, which shows two naked young women entwined on a bed.
How all this fits together cannot be reconstructed precisely, which is entirely in keeping with the artist’s intentions. Are we dealing with a voyeuristic male gaze that fetishizes cars, money, and naked women? Or is a tender conception of female subjectivity hidden behind the superficial first impression of “masculine” imagery?
Art postcards like this one with the Courbet motif could be bought everywhere on the streets of Paris for one franc at the time, the donor told us. But if Jiří Kolář had used it only as a random medium for the ‘actual’ collage work, he would hardly have called the entire work “Lesbian Car.” What seems to be crucial here is that we have to look beyond the surface.
Jiří Kolář was born in Protivin, Czech Republic, in 1914. He established himself in the Prague art scene in the 1930s with poems and collages and came into conflict with the communist regime for the first time in the 1950s. On his idiosyncratic artistic path between concrete poetry and pictorial collage art, he made many international contacts, became a mentor to young artists, married the artist and photographer Běla Kolářová, and together with her became a dissident voice in the “Prague Spring.” When he signed “Charter 77” in 1977, denouncing human rights violations by the Czech authorities, he was banned from working in the ČSSR. After a residency in Berlin, he initially remained there, then went to Paris and was expatriated from the ČSSR, while his wife was denied permission to leave the country. He did not return to the Czech Republic until 1997 and died in Prague in 2002. Kolář is considered one of the most important artists of Czech post-war modernism. He participated twice in the documenta (1968 and 1977), exhibited internationally, and developed completely new techniques in the field of collage.
We are delighted that Jiří Kolář’s unique work “Lesbian Car” has found its way into our art collection. With its three layers, it is quite difficult to photograph and retains its mystery. According to the donor, it was quite common for Kolář to give such small works, made from materials that were at hand, to friends. “But I never asked him why he gave me a lesbian car!”
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Jiří Kolář, “Voiture saphique / Lesbické Auto”
3-layer collage, paper, 10 x 15 cm, Paris, 1988
Personal gift to the donor (sammlungnglberlin), with title, personal message, and thanks, sent in an envelope, posted in Paris in 1988.
Photo: Yasmin Künze