Databáze uměleckých výstav v českých zemích 1820 – 1950

“As one walks in, something akin to the fluttering, exultant voice of the trumpets is rushing from all sides, through all the spaces; everywhere one is attacked by bright bursts of colour, ..., wherever one looks, there are streams of light, floods of air, wherever one steps, there is the wide, free, joyful breath of the earth, the smell of the soil, the concerted harmony of the people in their region, in the beautiful region of Moravian Slovakia.” [Mádl 1904a, p. 13] 

This is how Karel Boromejský Mádl described his first impressions from the highly popular 11th exhibition of the Mánes Fine Arts Association. Joža Uprka, who exhibited 126 of his paintings here, had his last Prague exhibition in 1897 in the Topič salon. According to the reviewers, Uprka had made noticeable progress in his technique since then, aiming towards a more confident drawing and harmonious colour vision. His paintings, for all their multicolour exuberance, radiated a harmonious calm, earning him a comparison with the works and qualities of great masterworks [Novák 1906, p. 194]. The show also contained a number of Uprka’s watercolours, in which the critics saw a tendency toward a simplification of the painterly expression.

The exhibition attracted great attention, evident from numerous celebratory reviews and visits from important persons such as Karel B. Mádl, Kamil Hilbert, Karel Chytil, Count Václav Kounic and others. However, the Prague intelligentsia was not the only social group to appreciate the exhibition. Visitors from the countryside and students showed great interest in Uprka’s work, with student groups attending in record numbers. A group visit from Moravian Slovakia was organized for the local community to see the show. The periodical Akademie, orgán socialistické mládeže (Academy, the Platform of Socialist Youth) directly encouraged workers to visit Uprka’s exhibition, claiming that for them, too, the show would be an “extraordinary experience” [A.M. 1904, p. 128].

Reviews suggest that by this time Uprka enjoyed general acclaim. Mádl, for example, wrote that he had been elevated to the position of national, Slavic painter, an artist depicting the life of the country folk in Moravian Slovakia as well as the life of people, who were oppressed by Germans and Hungarians but held on to their customs, already in decline in Uprka’s time. It was therefore of particular importance to record these customs [Mádl 1904b, p. 284]. Moreover, the 1904 exhibition was seen as a response to the wish on the part of the public that Mánes represent Czech and Slavic artists [anonymous author 1904, p. 3].

The catalogue, too, was a success – it was soon sold out and had to be reprinted. In addition to the list of all artworks at the exhibition, it contained reproductions of some of Uprka’s etchings. Critics gave a lot of attention to these etchings, as they had not been the artist’s primary focus to date. Mádl in particular thought they were masterful and ranked them among the best works created by the young artistic generation in this medium [Mádl 1904c, p. 142].

Most of the works represented in the exhibition built on Uprka's 1892-1893 scholarship in Paris, where he received an honorable mention at the Salon de la Société des artistes français for his painting Pilgrimage at St. Anthony’s. During his stay in Paris, Uprka became familiar with the current methods of using light and colours as well as the isolated colour blotch as a structural element. The vibrant colours in Moravian folk costumes turned out to be an ideal subject for this “luminous painting” [Musilová 2011, p. 27], which earned Uprka the reputation of being a “painter of a healthy life, light and colours” [J. R. 1904, p. 168].

The 1904 exhibition would be Uprka’s last collaboration with the Mánes Association, because later on, some of Mánes artists parted ways with the Brno Club, of which Uprka was a member . After that, he only exhibited two watercolours at Mánes’s sixteenth members’ exhibition in 1908 [Kačer 2011, p. 64]. 

Uprka’s next Prague retrospective was not held until 1931. This show was organized by SVU Myslbek (Myslbek Fine Arts Association) and took place in the exhibition pavilion in Na příkopě Street. It was very extensive, making the organizing a rather complex task. The organizers did not manage to borrow the pivotal artworks from private collections, and the attendance was lower than expected. Yet, the show received considerable attention in the press and was visited by a number of important persons, such as the Czechoslovak president, Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk [Musilová 2011, p. 54].

Alžběta Matyášová

Works Cited

A. M. 1904: A. M., XI. výstava spolku výtvarných umělců Mánes, Akademie VIII, 1904, pp. 127–128

J. R. 1904: J. R., XI. výstava spolku výtvarných umělců Mánes: Joža Uprka, Lumír, 1904, no. 14, 20. 2., pp.167–168

Kačer 2011: Jaroslav Kačer, Joža Uprka (exh. cat.), Galerie výtvarného umění Hodonín 2011

Mádl 1904a: Karel Boromejský Mádl, Jóža Uprka, Národní listy XLIV, 1904, no. 3, 3. 1., p. 13

Mádl 1904b: Karel Boromejský Mádl, Umění Jóže Uprky, Nová česká revue I, 1903–1904, no. 4, January 1904, pp. 283–293

Mádl 1904c: M. [Karel Boromejský Mádl], Uprkova výstava, Zlatá Praha XXI, 1903–1904, no. 12, 15. 1., p. 142

Musilová 2011: Helena Musilová, Joža Uprka – životní data a události, in: eadem – Eva Bendová et al., Joža Uprka 1861–1940: Evropan slováckého venkova (exh. cat.), National Gallery in Prague 2011

Anonymous author 1904: Anonymous author, Souborná výstava děl Jože Uprky, Národní listy XLIV, 1904, no. 3, 3. 1., p. 3

Novák 1906: Arne Novák, Výtvarné umění v Čechách v r. 1904, Nová česká revue II, 1905–1906, no. 3, pp. 193–194

Further Reading

Jakub Obrovský, Joža Uprka. K pátému výročí umělcovi smrti, Praha 1944

Archival Sources

City of Prague Archives, Fonds Fond Spolek výtvarných umělců Mánes, Výstavní činnost, Jóža Úprka. 1904 (2. 1. – 28. 2.)
http://katalog.ahmp.cz/pragapublica/Zoomify.action?showOne=&_sourcePage=Ug-sfbPfRhgZid5zhYZPVztLgb0KaG8RaDbtoGUs20V_qrpemZM8DT3q1_k_wb601bVCXnE-1JKIQirP2safMv4-xnmNbSKHuqO6ggljvx8%3D&pagerCompStateId=PAGER_MEDIA&paginatorCompStateId=PAGINATOR_MEDIA&rowPg=1

Anonymous author, Slovácký gajdoš, Besedy lidu XII, 1904, no. 9, pp. 106–107

Anonymous author, Výstava děl Jože Uprky v pavilloně „Manesa“, Národní listy XLIV, 1904, no. 1, 1. 1., p. 4

Anonymous author, Souborná výstava děl Jože Uprky, Národní listy XLIV, 1904, no. 3, 3. 1., pp. 2–3

Anonymous author, Výstava mistra Jože Uprky v Praze, Brněnské noviny, 1904, no. 3, 4. 1., p. 3

Anonymous author, Joža Uprka v Praze, Moravská orlice XLII, 1904, no. 4, 5. 1., p. 1

Anonymous author, Souborná výstava Jože Uprky v Praze, Moravská orlice XLII, 1904, no. 3, 6. 1., p. 3

Anonymous author, Výstava děl Jože Uprky v pavilloně „Manesa“ …, Národní listy XLIV, 1904, no. 7, 7. 1., p. 2

Anonymous author, Výstava děl Jože Uprky v pavilloně „Manesa“ …, Národní listy XLIV, 1904, no. 10, 10. 1., p. 3

Anonymous author, Výstava děl Jože Uprky v pavilloně „Manesa“ …, Národní listy XLIV, 1904, no. 17, 17. 1., p. 2, 4

Anonymous author, Výstava děl Jože Uprky v pavilloně „Manesa“ …, Národní listy XLIV, 1904, no. 19. 19. 1., p. 3

Anonymous author, Slovácké obrazy Jože Uprky, Rudé květy I–III, 1901–1904, no. 9, 1. 2., p. 143

Anonymous author, Výstava děl Jože Uprky v pavilloně „Manesa“ …, Národní listy XLIV, 1904, no. 38, 7. 2., p. 3

Anonymous author, Výstava děl Jože Uprky v pavilloně „Manesa“ …, Národní listy XLIV, 1904, no. 45, 14. 2., p. 3

Anonymous author, Výstava děl Jože Uprky v pavilloně „Manesa“ …, Národní listy XLIV, 1904, no. 52, 20. 2., p. 3

J. R., XI. výstava spolku výtvarných umělců Mánes: Joža Uprka, Lumír, 1904, no. 14, 20. 2., pp. 167–168

František Fromek, K Uprkově výstavě, Besedy času IX, 1904, no. 7, 21. 2., pp. 52–53

Anonymous author, Výstava děl Jože Uprky v pavilloně „Manesa“ …, Národní listy XLIV, 1904, no. 55, 24. 2., p. 3

Anonymous author, Výstava děl Jože Uprky v pavilloně „Manesa“ …, Národní listy XLIV, 1904, no. 59, 28. 2., p. 3

Anonymous author, XI. výstava „Manesa“…, Volné směry VIII, 1904, no. 1, pp. 54–55

Anonymous author, Výtvarné umění, Jóža Uprka, Časopis pokrokového studenstva VII, 1904, no. 4–5, pp. 94–95

A. M., XI. výstava spolku výtvarných umělců Mánes, Akademie VIII, 1904, pp. 127–128

Anonymous author, Joža Uprka, Dennice novověku XXVII, 1903–1904, no. 21, 17. 3., p. 5

Karel Procházka, Národopisné rozhledy, Vlasť XX, 1903–1904, no. 6, pp. 555–55