Jindřich Vondrák Photomontage work

Jindřich Vondrák – Na dobrou paměť 1938 [In Good Remembrance, 1938] (Czech) [Prague?, late 1938]. Tinted photomontage on card stock, 23.5 × 30 cm. A striking pre-war photomontage composition centered on a relief lion and a map of Czechoslovakia, overlaid with mobilization imagery—artillery, troops, aircraft—and photographic vignettes. Issued in the immediate aftermath of the Munich Agreement (30 September 1938), the work reflects the moment when a fully mobilized state was compelled to accept territorial dismemberment without military resistance. The imagery juxtaposes readiness for war with enforced silence (“the weapons… fell silent”), while the text articulates a powerful sense of betrayal—directed especially at France and United Kingdom—and asserts a moral counterpoint: the betrayed nation will endure in honor. A poignant fusion of lament, accusation, and national memory at the threshold of World War II. VG condition, crease to lower right corner of border not affecting image. Inv. BX2