O NIEKTÓRYCH ZAGADNIENIACH REALIZMU SOCJALISTYCZNEGO W SZTUCE

ON SOME ISSUES OF SOCIALIST REALISM IN ART Vladimír Šolta (1924–1977) – painter, cartoonist and writer. From the 1950’s, he held a number of positions in the sector of cultural policy in Czechoslovakia. After 1970, he actively participated in the reform of the Union of Czechoslovak Artists (SČSVU) in the spirit of the so-called. standardization. Solta’s article is considered as one of the most dogmatically formulated analyzes of socialist realism in Czechoslovakia. In the five-year period of the most strict totalitarianism (1948–1953), Solta was one of the main supporters of renewal of classical national tradition, realism and thematic art. In the campaign against modern art, he used the terminology and arguments on aesthetics by Zhdanov and Stalin. At the same time, he used the method which evolved to an absurd and was connected with ‘critical’ analysis of works of art. The method was to detect formalistic relics. [Vladimír Solta, K některým Otázka socialistického realismu ve výtvarné umění, „Výtvarné umění I”, No. 3, 1950–1951, pp. 108–132.] The text reprinted in an abridged version. (Excerpts from the author’s biography and commentary to the editorial published in the original Czech by Jiří Ševčík, Pavlína Morganová, Dagmar Dušková, České umění 1938–1989 (programs / kritické texty / documents), Praha 2001 Academia, pp. 141–148; biography, p. 494. Translation from the Czech language by Krzysztof Dackiewicz