Lenka Sýkorová

"And then he actually got on the list, but it does not exist. That's the interesting thing about it, how it worked. I like the way it works. Nobody got written, 'You can't exhibit anymore.' They didn't even write in the gallery, 'These can't exhibit...' That was actually unwritten. They couldn't... To this day, they can't name anybody or condemn anybody for the fact that it was basically forbidden. Everybody knew them, those who don't exhibit. Suddenly, those who had been previously put aside took power. Because these artists, and there were dozens of them, grew up. In the 1960s they became artists who brought new directions, modern art, and they started to exhibit abroad - Zdeněk Sýkora from 1966/67. In those three years he became a respected European artist. And he was not the only one. And of course it was a thorn in the side of those who were national artists here, the renowned ones, and they suddenly overtook them. Zdeněk told me about an exhibition that was abroad. He said it was the first Czechoslovak exhibition. And now, who will be chosen there? So they chose national artists and some progressive, modern ones. Well, what happened? They were interested abroad in the younger ones - and those who were there knew that this had happened. So the moment they could give it back to them, in '72/73, of course they did."