With the democratization of Eastern European countries in the past few years, many Western eyes have looked toward “Ostkunst,” or eastern art. The term, used in a derogatory fashion for years and always connected to a regressive idea, was transformed in the Gorbachev years into its exact opposite: “Ostkunst” was “discovered” and became very hot property (largely because of a rather uncritical attraction to the exotic). That today one can see Karel Malich’s works in a Western gallery testifies to the change in our perceptions about “Ostkunst,” for now we must examine the commonalities and