FG 1973. Cycle of four drypoint etchings, signed, laid into original printed folder by František Gross (1909-1985)

[Prague]: [1973]. Printed on thick wove paper measuring ca. 30 × 21 cm, plate measurements 14.5 × 10 cm. Signed and numbered (22 of 27). Fine. Gross was an early member of the Czech post-war artist collective "Skupina 42" (Group 42), formally founded in 1940, during the German Protectorate. The group was forbidden by the Communist government in 1948, but its members and artists continued to work and impact the Czech art scene well into the 1970s. "Skupina 42" was significantly shaped by the experience of war and the German occupation. It combined pre-war tendencies such as cubism, futurism, and constructivism with existentialist and surrealist thought and images. Nevertheless it also sought to counteract a certain academic quality in art and was drawn to a kind of urban realism: the city in its manifold forms was an important theme, and ties to American literature and art were also strong.