Databáze uměleckých výstav v českých zemích 1820 – 1950

Emil Filla’s Golden Jubilee Exhibition was held on the occasion of Filla's 50th birthday. It was organized by the Mánes Fine Arts Association, within which Filla had gradually built an important position. Starting as a rank and file member of the exhibition and editing committee, by the end of the 1920s he had worked his way up and become the treasurer and a board member. He also edited the journal Volné směry. By the beginning of the 1930s, he was the association's secretary, and in 1933, became its chairman.

The exhibition was curated by Filla and the art historian and collector Vincenc Kramář, Filla's close friend and the main expert on his work. Kramář lent twenty artworks from his own collection to the show, assisted in its installation, delivered the opening address and wrote an extensive catalogue introduction. On May 28, he gave a lecture on Filla in the Mánes building.

Filla and Kramář conceived the exhibition as a retrospective. In terms of the number of exhibited artworks, it was much larger than any of Filla's previous solo shows. There were only five such exhibitions, and none took place in Prague. In 1908, Filla had a joint show with Antonín Procházka in Brno, and between 1924 and 1925 he exhibited in the Alfred Flechtheim Gallery in Berlin and Düsseldorf. In 1925, he had a solo show in Brno.

The Prague exhibition included almost 360 artworks dated between 1906 and 1931. In addition to paintings, largely oils, there were two mosaics based on Filla's designs, watercolour, drawings, prints and two sculptures. The choice of artworks was guided by the effort to illustrate all of the phases of Filla's evolution as an artist, in a complex manner. The exhibition therefore contained artworks from all his creative periods: from the group Osma (The Eight) period through his time with the Skupina výtvarných umělců (Fine Arts Group), his Dutch period, the 1920s, all the way up to his latest works. Filla managed to bring together not only a sufficient number of works which represented all his individual periods, but also the pieces that both he and Kramář regarded as most representative and prominent within his oeuvre. The exhibition thus showcased now iconic paintings such as Child at the Edge of the Forest (1907), Salome (1911), Golden Fish by the Window (1916) and Woman with a Carpet (1921). Almost forty lenders participated in the exhibition, including both private collectors (mostly physicians, businessmen, art historians and artists) and public institutions, particularly the Modern Gallery, which lent five paintings, including Filla's most famous painting, the Reader of Dostoevsky (1907).

The paintings hung on the walls and simple panels dividing the space. Vojtěch Volavka, who praised the installation as very sensitive and skilfully designed, named Kramář as its curator, but Filla had undoubtedly collaborated with him [Volavka 1932, p. 14]. Each individual space on the panels and the walls between them was envisaged as its own separate unit. The paintings, installed in one or two rows, formed a more or less symmetrical composition. The intention was to make viewers perceive not only the individual paintings but also a particular section of Filla's oeuvre. This was facilitated by small distances between paintings. It is likely that Kramář and Filla found inspiration in Picasso’s 1920s exhibitions.

The exhibition was a disappointment for Filla and the organizers in terms of attendance, as the number of visitors did not exceed 1,500. Yet the show and its catalogue are an excellent example of a retrospective that aims not only to celebrate the artist's oeuvre but also to naturally strengthen his position in the contemporary art world. Filla's motivations included the effort to canonize his own oeuvre, that is, to establish its earlier phases as integral and important parts of art history. The majority of reviewers cautiously remarked that only the future would show Filla's place in history, and whether his work was truly original or overly dependent on foreign models, Picasso in particular. Vojtěch Volavka wrote the following: “If [Filla] now presents an overview of works made over the course of more than a quarter century, it is an event that evokes understandable excitement and interest, as his oeuvre in large part encompasses the evolution of our modern art from the end of Impressionism. Only historical hindsight will fully show the degree to which his work has stimulated others, how much inspiration it has radiated, and in which directions.” [Volavka 1932, p. 13]

Tomáš Winter

Works cited

Volavka 1932: Vojtěch Volavka, Emil Filla, Demokratický střed IX, 1932, no. 21, 27. 5., pp. 2–4, in: Tomáš Winter (ed.), Zajatec kubismu. Dílo Emila Filly v zrcadle výtvarné kritiky (1907–1953), Praha 2004, pp. 13–14

Further reading

Vojtěch Lahoda, Emil Filla, Praha 2007, pp. 391–393

vn [Vladimír Novotný], K Fillově výstavě. Volné směry XXIX, 1931–1933, no. 5–6, 7. 6. 1932, pp. 153–154

Tomáš Winter (ed.), Zajatec kubismu. Dílo Emila Filly v zrcadle výtvarné kritiky (1907–1953), Praha 2004, pp. 10–36

Archival sources

Prague City Archives, Fonds Spolek výtvarných umělců Mánes, Výstavní činnost [Exhibitions], 4166, Jubilejní výstava díla Emila Filly [Emil Filla’s Jubilee Exhibition], May 1932

link at: http://katalog.ahmp.cz

N. [Viktor Nikodem], Souborná výstava Emila Filly, Národní osvobození IX, 1932, no. 119, 29. 4., p. 6

N. [Viktor Nikodem], Dr. V. Kramář o Emilu Fillovi, Národní osvobození, 1932, 30. 4., in: Archive of the National Gallery Prague, fonds Moderní galerie (1902–1942), Výstřižkové knihy k výstavám, umělcům a činnosti MG i jiných galerií, acquisition no. 939, book no. 5 (1931–1932)

anonymous author, Souborná výstava díla malíře Emila Filly, Národní politika, 1932, 14. 5., in: Ar-chive of the National Gallery Prague, fonds Moderní galerie (1902–1942), Výstřižkové knihy k výstavám, umělcům a činnosti MG i jiných galerií, acquisition no. 939, book no. 5 (1931–1932)

N. [Viktor Nikodem], Výstavy. Národní osvobození IX, 1932, no. 148, 29. 5., p. 6

anonymous author, Ve výstavě Emila Filly v Mánesu, Československá republika, 1932, 26. 5., in: Archive of the National Gallery Prague, fonds Moderní galerie (1902–1942), Výstřižkové knihy k výstavám, umělcům a činnosti MG i jiných galerií, acquisition no. 939, book no. 5 (1931–1932)

J. Gočár, Josef Gočár o Emilu Fillovi, Literární noviny, 1932, no. 8, in: Archive of the National Gallery Prague, fonds Moderní galerie (1902–1942), Výstřižkové knihy k výstavám, umělcům a činnosti MG i jiných galerií, acquisition no. 939, book no. 5 (1931–1932)