Curator of Decadence Exhibition

Otto M. Urban, Ph.D (born February 9, 1967)

Urban studied the history of art and aesthetics from 1985 to 1990 at the Department of History of Art of the Faculty of Arts, Charles University, Prague, where he also completed his PhD in 2000. In the early 1990s he worked as an assistant at the Department of History of Art of the Faculty of Arts, Charles University, Prague (1990–1994), then as a specialist employee of the Czech Academy of Science Institute of Art History in Prague (1994–1998). Since 1993 he has co-operated as an external lecturer in courses for the CIEE (1993–1999), ECES (1995–2001), AU (2001–2004), NYU (1999–). In 1999, 2001, 2003 and 2005 Urban lectured on the history of modern Czech arts at the University of Texas in Austin. Since 2001 he has co-operated with The School of the Art Institute in Chicago.

Since the beginning of the 1990s Urban has intensely studied central European symbolism and, in particular, the issue of decadence. He was the organiser or co-organiser of exhibitions (for instance, František Kobliha 1990, Moderní revue 1995, Karel Hlaváček 1998, 2003, Alfred Kubin, 2003), and has published specialised studies of decadence and symbolism in both domestic and international specialist periodicals. His texts also feature in a number of proceedings (e.g. Totenmesse, 1995, a study on Munch, Hlaváček and Przybyszewski) and specialist publications (e.g. Intimate space/New distance 1997, Prague 1900–1938, 1997, František Bílek, 2000, Prostibolo duše, 2000). In 2002, Urban was the author and editor of a monograph entitled the Visual and Critical Work of Karel Hlaváček. In 2003, he acted as co-author of a monograph called Alfred Kubin: Rhythm and construction. In 2004, Urban wrote a study of the painting work by Arnold Schönberg for his textual monograph called Style and Idea.