František Bílek: The Path to the Temple Vestibule

The exhibition presents the early work of the Art Nouveau symbolist František Bílek (1872–1941).

Sculptures, drawings, prints, artist books, and texts from that period convey Bílek's unique interpretation of Christianity, which is based on a spiritual mystical world of symbols and allegories. The key to understanding are two fundamental artist books by Bílek from this period – Stavba budoucího chrámu v nás (1908) and Cesta (1909). In them, Bílek reacts to experiences from his study stay in Paris in the early 1890s and, above all, to the esoteric and then popular book by the French philosopher and essayist Édouard Schuré, Velcí zasvěcenci / Les Grands Initiés with the subtitle Náčrt tajných dějin náboženství (An Outline of the Secret History of Religions), published in 1889 in Paris. The resulting complex mosaic of religious syncretism, which became the backbone of Bílek's entire oeuvre, was most authentically applied here.