Zika and Lida Ascher escaped the Nazi invasion of Czechoslovakia by chance: they were on their honeymoon in Scandinavia. It was clear they couldn’t go home, even though Zika owned a Czech textile shop with his brother, and their hope of someday running one of the most successful textile operations in Europe suddenly felt like an impossible dream. The couple settled in London and opened a shop in 1942, dedicated to fabric for women’s clothes. In the following decades, business boomed and the Aschers became hugely influential. The Paris couture took inspiration from Ascher fabrics, and Zika asked artists such as Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Henry Moore, André Derain, Cecil Beaton, and Alexander Calder to design prints for the company. Original patterns, textile samples, photos, drawings, videos, and a documentary make up this show at the Czech Center. As for its title, Zika was a competitive skier with a risky style, hence his nickname “Mad Silkman.” —Sophie Kemp