PRAGUE.- A few days ago, a lavishly conceived exhibition that is expected to become one of the main spectator draws of this year's exhibition season has moved into the main building of the National Gallery and presents visitors with a fresh take on the connections between self-appointed prophets on the one hand and a number of leading artists who crossed the path of these prophets on the other hand. The exhibition bears the title "Artists and Prophets" and is composed of more than 350 works.

The goal of the exhibition is to look at the development of the visual arts in Central Europe, which was to some extent influenced by now forgotten religious prophets, from a new angle. "I don't intend to rewrite established historic terms, they have their use value. I merely highlight the very real connections of which we previously had no inkling," explains Pamela Kort, the curator of the exhibition. Especially in German-speaking areas, self-stylized prophets popped up like mushrooms at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. They put on the airs of latter-day hermits, lived on mountaintops, walked barefoot in plain tunics, wore long hair and possessed sunken cheeks, so that they resembled the popular image of Jesus Christ in quite a few aspects. They usually focused their energy on bringing about a change in the way in which their society functioned at the time - finding inner harmony, resolving social issues, inducing a spiritual rebirth, and finding their own religious path .Among their followers were some who would go on to become very prominent artists, and their work to some extent bears the mark of these prophets' thoughts and opinions.

The current showing in Prague is not the first way station along the exhibition trail of Artists and Prophets. The exhibition in fact premiered at the beginning of this year at Schirn Kunsthalle in Frankfurt on the Main. Compared to Frankfurt, the current manifestation of the exhibition has undergone a number of small modifications. It probably comes as no surprise that the installation in Prague puts greater emphasis on František Kupka, the trailblazer of abstract painting in the Czech lands, and on Egon Schiele who spent several years in Český Krumlov, the birthplace of his mother. Compared to the exhibition in Frankfurt, visitors to the Trade Fair Palace thus have the additional opportunity to examine the moving pastel drawing "Meditation" by František Kupka, on loan from the Gallery of Fine Arts in Ostrava, or a self-portrait of Schiele. "Sadly, a few exhibits have remained beyond our reach. This concerns in particular works on paper, which require the observance of a three-month exhibition period," says Czech curator Veronika Hulíková, who shaped the concept of the Prague installation, thus highlighting the difficulties in putting together an exposition. The exhibition at the Trade Fair Palace is further enhanced by the works of contemporary German artist Jonathan Meese, whose appearance immediately evokes those long-gone prophets. Visitors encounter his work at the very beginning of the exhibition, on the ground floor of the Small Entrance Hall (Malá dvorana).

If one wanted to highlight the offerings of the exhibition to focus on those works with the greatest artistic merit, one could for the most part simply let oneself be guided by the tagline of the exhibition: "Schiele, Hundertwasser, Kupka, Beuys." The works of these four artists form the backbone of this copious (and rather eye-opening) exposition, which is complemented by the personal histories and artistic attempts of such "prophets" as Karl Wilhelm Diefenbach, Gusto Gräser, Hugo Höppener (known as Fidus), and Gustav Nagel, who accidentally killed his child when he christened his childin icy water. Roughly halfway through the exhibition, the curator, Pamela Kort (who hails from the United States), focuses her attention on Joseph Beuys, considered by many to be the most influential artist of the second half of the 20th century. He, too, is shown here not just as a painter but also as a spiritually and politically engaged individual who founded various movements and lobbied for equality among people. At the exhibition, he is represented by his striking poster, "We are the Revolution" (1971), inspired by a then 50-year old photograph of Karl Wilhelm Diefenbach to whom Beuys felt a spiritual kinship. The exhibition is arranged so that it takes the visitor along an oval pathway– a symbolic detour that returns to its beginnings - and closes with a section dedicated to the paintings of Austrian maverick Friedensreich Hundertwasser, who made his own shoes and spent a significant portion of his life cruising the seas for years on a boat.