NHL Global Series Czechia spotlights hockey art exhibition

Czechoslovakia was divided into the Czech Republic and Slovakia on January 1, 1993. One article says: “The collapse of the Communist regime in November 1989 opened the possibility of Czech players going abroad, especially to the NHL, without having to emigrate.” . “The unforgettable 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan, got us back in the game.”

The Czech Republic won the gold medal in the first Olympics involving NHL players. “It was as if the Nagano victory was a realization of the optimistic 1990s about the first period of restoration of democracy and the identity of the modern Czech Republic,” he says alongside a collection of photographs.

Hašek and Jágr, two of the team’s stars, are depicted not as hockey icons but as religious icons: Hašek in a Buffalo Sabers jersey, Jágr in a Pittsburgh Penguins jersey with a gold halo. “Art can now express anything without censorship, without borders, and this freedom also applies to the hockey theme,” says one article.

There is a painting of the legendary coach Ivan Hlinka, who led the country in Nagano, and it is not just him. By him. “Not many people know that one of his hobbies was painting,” he says in a statement. “He signed his paintings under the pseudonym HLİVAN.”

“Sad Clown”, an existential self-portrait from the early 1980s, shows Hlinka as a sad clown staring at his hockey bag. He was wearing four of his old jerseys, including the one he wore as center for the Vancouver Canucks from 1981-83. “This oil painting can be perceived as an artistic summary of the completion of his career as a professional ice hockey player,” the statement reads.