Franz Kafka VII 1991

Alena Laufrová made this print, Franz Kafka VII, using etching and aquatint. The head of Kafka is presented as a labyrinth of lines that, alongside the visible script, suggests the tangled nature of his writing and the bureaucracy that features so heavily in his work. Laufrová was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia, and her art reflects the political and cultural realities of life behind the Iron Curtain. Her portrait of Kafka is a reminder of the author's own struggles with authority and alienation, which resonated strongly with the Czech experience under Soviet rule. To understand this artwork, one might consult historical archives and literary criticism, connecting Kafka's themes of alienation to the political and social context of both his time and Laufrová's. The meaning of art is always contingent on its social and institutional context.