The Prison Cell Wall (The Memory of Imprisonment)

Cruel experiences from prison cells laid the foundations for many drawings and paintings by Diviš. Small sketches and recollections of months spent in custody inspired the paintings he made in New York during 1941–1947. The first pieces of this circle date from 1939–1940 during his solitary confinement in La Santé prison in Paris. Diviš drew inspiration from the walls of the cell damaged by clefts, moulds, stains, paint-peeled plasters, inscriptions, and drawings of previous convicts. He drew his memories mostly with white and black pencils in the almost monochromatic gouaches evoking the walls of a prison cell. Diviš’s dramatic existential motifs anticipate the issues and style of the paintings by Jean Dubufett, Jean Fautrier, and Wols. In the Czech milieu, they foresee Art Informel production of the early 1950s.