The exhibition Conflicts of Vision 1890–1918, subtitled Facets of Modernity at the Turn of the 19th and 20th Centuries, focuses on the multi-layered and multifaceted development of Czech modern art at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, which was marked by an unprecedented creative ferment. In a relatively short period, several generations worked side by side, hastily having to come to terms with incoming foreign influences while simultaneously defining themselves against them and finding their own distinctiveness. In this “cauldron” charged with extraordinary energy, main artistic tendencies rapidly succeeded one another, their parade on the European art scene spanning several decades: Impressionism and Symbolism, Decadence and Expressionism, Cubism and Civilism.

In Bohemia, the protagonists of these distinctively received trends were artists of the so-called Generation of the 1890s who founded the Mánes Association of Visual Artists (Antonín Slavíček, Otakar Lebeda, Jan Preisler, František Bílek) or were connected with the circle around Moderní revue (e.g., Karel Hlaváček), followed at the beginning of the 20th century by representatives of the Eight and the future Group of Visual Artists (Emil Filla, Bohumil Kubišta, Otto Gutfreund, Václav Špála, Josef Čapek) and the Sursum artistic association, programmatically following the previous generation (e.g., Josef Váchal, Jan Zrzavý). The exhibition ends with a reminder of the Stubborn Ones group, which was the only one to briefly continue the achievements of modern art advanced by the pre-war generation shortly before the end of World War I.

Unjustly excluded for many years from this circle of significant authors were Czech-German artists who brought a distinctive color to the local environment, whether they belonged to avant-garde groups such as the Eight or were prominent individualists (e.g., Eugen von Kahler, Wenzel Hablik, August Brömse, Jan Autengruber). The exhibition will also present Czech artists who lived in Paris for long or short periods, such as the founder of abstract painting František Kupka or Alois Bílek, who met Kupka in Paris and was one of the very first to take up Kupka’s ideas in a series of watercolors.

Conflicts of Vision, whose title captures the inner contradictions and conflicts emerging at the turn of the century not only in the artistic but also in the cultural and social spheres, will present works by more than forty authors. The focus will be on the artistic work and its presentation rather than on art-historical concepts or pedantic didactics. Eleven sections will introduce artistic personalities regardless of their generational or group affiliation. This structure aims to reveal hidden connections often overlooked by contemporary reflections but which, after almost a hundred years, appear increasingly obvious. Many of the represented artists became pillars of Czech modern art over time. They are therefore represented by extensive collections sometimes including more than fifteen examples (e.g., Antonín Slavíček, Emil Filla, Otto Gutfreund, Bohumil Kubišta).

Highlights of the exhibition: Ostrava visitors will be able to see some of the most important works of Czech modern painting. They will admire Antonín Slavíček’s panoramic painting View from Ládví (1908), one of the peaks of Slavíček’s distinctive version of Impressionism. Preparatory studies and the final painting Sand Diggers on the Seine (1907) by František Kupka will be shown, a work in which he grappled with Fauvism. This painting was owned for a long time by President Edvard Beneš. Visitors will also see the large-scale Men Bathing (1911) by Bohumil Kubišta, one of the most beautiful figurative paintings in Czech modern art, as well as the evocative nocturnal scene Moon with Lily of the Valley (1912) by Jan Zrzavý. Visitors will have the opportunity to explore a unique approach to Cubism in the works of Emil Filla created during his forced Dutch exile, culminating in Still Life with Map (1914) and especially Still Life with Goldfish (1916), sold at one of the highest prices in Czech auctions. Attention can also rest on two outstanding paintings with the motif of Bathing by Václav Špála from 1918–1919.

Within the Conflicts of Vision exhibition, Czech art from 1890 to 1918 is presented as a plural, multifaceted, dynamically interwoven and intersecting formation, valuable for its internal diversity of views, which laid the still unsurpassed foundations not only for Czech art throughout the entire twentieth century but, judging by the continuing interest in this period, also for today’s culture. Without the legacy of the artists generously presented in this exhibition, it would be impossible to imagine the present.

Karel Srp

Translated with the help of GPT chat.

Curators: Karel Srp, Marie Rakušanová, Petr Wittlich, Vojtěch Lahoda
Graphic design: Robert V. Novák