The Prague Post
December 1st, 2008
Endowment Fund     Business Listings ONLINE      Reservations      Classifieds    Subscriptions
Hotel Prague Centre

Home » Archives » Night & Day

The Czech Picasso

Filla retrospective shows both sides of an exceptional talent
Gallery Review | Search restaurants | Archives

By Tony Ozuna
For The Prague Post
July 11th, 2007 issue

COURTESY PHOTO
Filla strikes a stylish pose in an early self-portrait.
Emil Filla

at Prague Castle Riding School
Ends Oct. 31. U Prašného mostu 55. Open Tues.–Sun. 10 a.m.–6 p.m.

Czech art historians are split on Emil Filla and his role in the history of both European and Czech modern art. Known foremost as a Cubist, he’s regarded by his proponents as the equal of Picasso and Georges Braque. His critics counter that he is merely an epigone, or second-rate follower, first of Edvard Munch and then of Picasso, with no bold advances to his credit.
This is the reason why, more than half a century after his death, Filla (1882–1953) is only now being honored with a retrospective exhibition and a monograph worthy of his legacy. The results suggest that both factions are right: This important and complex Czech Modernist was, in fact, both an epigone and an exceptionally talented painter and sculptor in his own right.
The exhibit begins with Filla’s earliest works, including two self-portraits. One, from 1906, portrays the artist full of confidence, determination and style, wearing a green suit jacket and brown hat with a cigarette dangling from his mouth. Beside this, a darker self-portrait shows a more vulnerable man doused in thicker slabs of brown, gray and black paint.
A standout among the early works, painted in the style of Lyrical Expressionism, is On the Veranda (1907). Composed in a simplified color scheme of darker and lighter hues of blue, white and yellow, it seems to shine like a beacon of light among the others, which are mostly Edvard Munch-like darker works — though the huge babies in two other works, especially Child by a Forest (1907), in which the infant is placed beside Christ on the cross in the woods, are both comical and eerie.
In the next section of the show, representing the period from 1911–21, are Filla’s first works in the Cubist style, made after traveling around Europe and living in Paris, where he befriended Braque. From 1911 to 1912, his Salome paintings, in lighter shades of brown, evoke motion and carnal emotions in swirls of angular bodies. The later Cubist works, geometric constructions with titles such as Reader, Smoker and Woman, are darker canvases in rust, gray and black, more cluttered and even menacing in a claustrophobic way.
The largest and latest work in this section, Woman With a Rug (1921), is a Cubist composition of a woman beside a rug that looks remarkably like an actual, well-aged Persian carpet stuck onto the canvas. It appears to be a collage, but it’s all paint.
There are some semi-collages nearby, however, including paintings incorporating cement. The most notable is Woman With a Necklace (1914–15), which includes actual beads around the woman’s neck. Most of the works from this period were made while Filla was living in Paris, or after the outbreak of World War I in Amsterdam and then Rotterdam (though Woman With a Rug was created after his return to Prague in 1920).
The large central space of the exhibition hall reveals the artist at his peak, in the 1920s and early ’30s. During this phase of his career he broke out of his claustrophobic perspective to one of greater light and space, combining lyricism and abstraction, though still rooted in Cubism.
Standouts in this section include Three Females With Dog, which depicts a trio of solitary nudes with gravitas, and a dog looking neglected beside the women. In other pieces Filla begins to be more playful with his figures. Reader (1932) is an elephantine figure with one eye. Woman With a Book (1932), which looks Postmodern in form and colors (peach and lime green), shows a woman with her head down, the chair behind her head lending a halo effect.
Other nude figures, such as Woman on a Beach (1935–36), are almost like modern comic-strip figures in their simplicity, while Old Women (1935) features two grotesque figures with deformed heads. These surreal monsters in purple and brown are comical and refreshingly simple — more playful or even joyful than Picasso’s Cubist or Surrealist works — combining organic forms and bright, simple colors with a Cubist approach.
As the political climate shifted in the late 1930s, Filla’s paintings became darker once again. One section is dedicated to animals and mythological figures in conflict or battle.
Under the German occupation, Filla was sent to the concentration camp in Buchenwald, where he remained until the end of the war. The final room of the exhibition includes canvases that Filla painted with texts of Slavonic folk songs and ballads. These works best reflect his nationalist sentiments and humanist stance, which had formed before his internment but became particularly strong after his liberation, although he didn’t paint for more than a year afterward.
The best works from this period are all titled Buchenwald and were created in 1946. One of these canvases is among the largest and most vibrant paintings in the exhibit. The deformed figures are dour, if not in pain, though the colors are like spring blossoms. This contrast makes the work both exhilarating and perturbing at the same time. This is Filla’s Guernica.
Sculptural busts by Filla are placed throughout the exhibit, according to period. They are true to the spirit of Cubism, while the paintings evolve from a Cubist core that solidifies toward the end of his career.
In the upstairs gallery, drawings reveal Filla’s early ideas and even templates for important Cubist paintings. There are also naturalist landscape watercolors of the Central Bohemian Highlands.
In the last years of his life, Filla became especially interested in Chinese painting, and rendering the Czech countryside seemed to be his final retreat from society after the last great disappointment in his life — the rising oppression of communism.

Tony Ozuna can be reached at features@praguepost.com


Other articles in Night & Day (11/07/2007):

Browse the Current Issue

If you enjoyed this article, why don't you subscribe to the print version!
We accept secure online transactions provided by PayPal and Moneybookers

Be the first to add a comment!


Full Name: *
City: *
E-mail: **
This comment can be published in the print version of The Prague Post
Enter the text on the right:
 visual captcha
Comment: *
* Required field. In order to be approved for display, comments must have a first and last name and a city.
** E-mails are required and will only be used for internal purposes.

Most visited in Business Listings

Provokator
Hotel booking
The Prague Post Online contains a selection of articles that have been printed in
The Prague Post, a weekly newspaper published in the Czech Republic.
To subscribe to the print paper, click here.
Unauthorized reproduction is strictly prohibited.