Vilem Reichmann - Caught in the Snare

Venus, Caught in the Snare.

I was visiting the exhibition of Central European Modernism, hosted by the Washington National Gallery. A good friend of mine was for a day in DC and we were together at the exhibition. Vladi (Vladimir Brunstein) - we learned at the same high school in Bucharest. Vladi lives near New York and travels often to DC for his business.

So, we were now visiting the exhibition of Central-European Modernism. He was looking for an artist that he knew. While in Bucharest, long time ago, a friend of Vladi had told him about one of the masters of the Brno school of photography, Vilem Reichmann.

The best-known work of Vilem Reichmann was this Venus, Caught in the Snare, and Vladi was remembering the enthusiasm of his friend while telling him about Venus, the photo shot by Reichmann. And also about another work of the Czech artist, Memento.

Well, after a couple of years Vladi had the opportunity to meet Reichmann who was for one day in Bucharest on his way to the Black Sea.

Both Venus and Memento had been purchased by a Viennese photo gallery, Johannes Faber, and after many years, while vacationing in Vienna, Vladi would find the gallery, and the photos.

The gallery is located on the Brahmsplatz, not far from another musical reminder, the Mozartplatz. Some day I will be there maybe. Who knows?

But we were now far from Vienna, and looking for Venus, or for any other photo shot by Reichmann, only there was none at the exhibition. Actually Reichman had belonged to the generation immediately following the Avant-Garde of the 20s and 30s, and the exhibition was about the Avant-Garde.

Reichmann lived in Brno between 1908 and 1991, and that photo, Caught in the Snare, is dated 1941. It is an ambiguity in this work, that gives it a special force. It is celebrating the beauty, while telling us something about the boundaries that the nature is setting for us.

As for Memento, it was made in 1950. The war was still a living memory, and the new life was haunting.

The young hero would like to believe in his future, only he has to struggle with his demons; demons of a recent past? demons of a terrible present? demons waiting for him in years to come?

Like Venus, the young here is caught in the snare, too. Is he a worker? A student? His force, his vitality, his determination, and the boundaries set for him by horrible demons.








The universe explored in most of the works of Vilem Reichmann is at the limit between mineral, vegetal and animal. By strange connections in time, it is the world of Pan's Labyrinth, the movie of Guillermo del Torro. With old trees becoming suddenly wise wizards, to transform then in animals that speak the tongue of humans, with flowers that change their petals in spiky edges, submarine flowers becoming icy carvings, then traveling leaves, everything is floating, everything is changing, everything is a bit scary while fascinating by a weird beauty.





(Modernism in Central Europe)