ALOIS BEER – NAIWNY OUTSIDER
ALOIS BEER – THE NAIVE OUTSIDER

Summary/Abstract: The main aim of the paper is to present the person of Alois Beer (1833-1897), a Czechnaive painter and writer. He was a craftsman who worked and lived in Dobruška in the northernBohemia in the second half of the 19th century. His literary and painting output contains 65notebooks with his memories and drawings describing his travels across Europe and everyday life in Dobruška. His work was discovered and recalled by Karel Michl in the 1930’s, but the important factor in its success and popularity was also the avant-garde interest in the outsider and naive art, which started in the 1920’s (in 1920 Josef Èapek published his famous essays Nejskromnìjší umìní devoted to the issue of the non-professional art). In the second half of the20th century, Alois Beer was also an inspiration for the literary character of Jára Cimrman. It isa significant fact which shows the important role of the historical and artistic exclusion in theCzech culture and Czech identity.

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