Thanks Seeming of the Czechoslovak People

From November 2020 to December 2021, artist Marcel Mališ painted an artistic replica of the lost work Thanksgiving of the Czech and Slovak People to Generalissimo Stalin in the atrium of the Slovak National Gallery. The deliberately altered title reflects the political and propagandistic level of the original work, which became an apt memento of the period when the cult of the Soviet leader's personality was at its peak.

Visitors to the gallery were able to follow the creation of the work in real time. See it in an interactive timeline on the Action Z website.

In the hot June of 1950, which would become a new dark period in our modern history, the June in which Milada Horáková was executed, a trio of artists begin work on a spectacular propaganda commission. Jan Čumpelík, Jaromír Schoř and Alena Čermáková, as members of the creative collective Č.S.Č., paint the iconic work of socialist realism, Thanksgiving of the Czech and Slovak People to Generalissimo Stalin.

The monumental painting (8.7 x 8 m) is meant to represent Czechoslovakia's servility at an exhibition of economic achievements in Moscow, but eventually becomes the highlight of the Czechoslovak-Soviet Friendship in Art exhibition at Prague's Žofín. The painting receives extraordinary attention, its creation is regularly reported in the media, its unveiling is accompanied by adequate media attention, it is presented in the presence of politicians, and it is filmed by a film crew. However, the enthusiasm soon wanes and the image becomes the target of criticism. In March 1953, the protagonist dies and the painting disappears forever.

More about the original work (SVK only).

The artist's work at the SNG was accompanied by the so called "Akcia Z" art expedition with a number of accompanying events, discussions and thematic materials. In addition to the situation in the 1950s, the relationship between propaganda and art, hoaxes, the building of a cult of personality or the theme of fear, the relationship between the original and the copy, the issue of authorship, monumental creation, art on commission, patronage, and the perception and understanding of problematic sections of our history were also discussed.