Braunauer Wise

70% of the hammer price is allocated to support the non-profit foundation Spolu s odvahou, a member of the Bátor Tábor Family.

Mark Ther’s work has long focused on the historical memory of the Czech Republic—particularly on the troubled fate of the Sudeten Germans—while his themes are always tied to queer issues. The author himself has Sudeten German roots through his grandparents, and his work thus also reveals layers of his own origins. Ther studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, first in Vladimír Skrepl’s painting studio and then in Michael Bielický’s new media studio. In his work he expresses himself primarily through video. He has gradually shifted from shorter formats to medium-length films and has long been drawing nearer to classical film language and the technical brilliance and strong storytelling associated with it. In 2011 he received the Jindřich Chalupecký Award for his filmic work. In addition to video, he also works with archives, depositories, and antiques, which he uses to craft scenographic installations. A lesser-known part of his oeuvre is his drawings. Ther’s drawing for this auction builds on a series created for his last exhibition at Karpuchina Gallery. It explores a kind of unlived memory of the town of Broumov in the Sudetenland and the boys who lived there before their expulsion. From an early age the artist often used to travel to Broumov with his parents to visit relatives, and he reconstructed his memories of the place with the help of an old German book describing the local flora, which he then captured in his works. The drawing is a search for a lost time, and its intimacy is underscored by a feeling of fading memories and a subtly suggested homoeroticism.