It is thirty years since the death of one of the leading Czech art historians, the mediaevalist Josef Krása. His work as a specialist was closely connected with the Institute for Art Theory and Art History of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences, where he worked from 1957 onwards. As secretary for research at the Institute, editor-in-chief of the journal Umění, and member of the academic committee for art research of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences, the international committee of CIHA, and a number of other scholarly and editorial committees, he played a role of fundamental importance in preserving and developing the field of art history in the exceptionally difficult period of “normalisation” in the 1980s, when he courageously promoted the need to accept and reflect on important international methodological concepts. The Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic later expressed its appreciation of the exceptional contribution made by Josef Krása, and in April 2003 it awarded him the František Palacký honorary medal in the field of art history in memoriam.
To mark the anniversary of the death of Josef Krása, the Institute of Art History, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, is preparing a series of specialist events devoted to his life and work. They will be spread out throughout the year. An exhibition was launched in the Window Gallery on 11 March 2015, and a one-day interdisciplinary symposium will be held in the Academic Conference Centre on 14 October 2015. A hitherto unpublished methodological lecture by Krása will appear in the journal Umění / Art. A selection of some of Josef Krása’s less well-known texts, accompanied by a commentary, will throw fresh light on the unexpected range of his scholarly interests.
