Databáze uměleckých výstav v českých zemích 1820 – 1950

In 1923, the Mánes Fine Arts Association in Prague organized a solo exhibition for one of its members, Otakar Kubín, who had been working in France since 1912. This exhibition at Mánes, running parallel to the French Art exhibition at the Municipal House, marked his first postwar solo show in Bohemia. It was also the first exhibition to present him to Czech audiences not as a representative of Cubo-Expressionism and member of the Osma (Group of Eight, with whom he had exhibited in 1907), but as a leading figure of the École de Paris and the new contemporary movement of lyrical neoclassicism.

By this time, the painter was already using the French version of his name – Othon Coubine. In Paris, he had established a remarkably solid position in the years preceding this exhibition. He had participated in the renowned Salon d'Automne before the war and would exhibit there again in 1932 [Pravdová 2022, p. 159]. After the war, he was also represented at the Salon des Indépendants, specifically in the section reserved for the artistic “crème de la crème” [Weiner 1920, p. 9]. His work, which had undergone radical transformation during the war years, was first presented in 1919 with an exhibition of drawings at Librairie Bernouard. This was followed by his first solo exhibitions at Galerie Berthe Weill and Galerie Barbazanges. In 1923, he was also represented at the Salon des Tuileries in Paris [Pravdová 2022, p. 164]. Shortly after the war, Coubine signed a contract with art dealer Adolphe Basler, who provided him with steady income, promotion, and consequently the motivation to create intensively and consistently [Kubín, Memoirs, p. 47]. During these years – marked by personal tragedy – Kubín spent most of his time in the French Provence (while maintaining his Parisian studio), which became his refuge and inexhaustible source of inspiration for decades to come.

Although tis was a solo exhibition, it took place in the artist's absence, as he remained in France and would not return to his homeland until his major retrospective in 1934. As Anna Pravdová notes in her monograph dedicated to three leading Czech representatives of the École de Paris (alongside Coubine, G. Kars and F. Z. Eberl): "Compared to Georges Kars, who maintained a studio in Prague and frequently traveled there, Coubine had much less contact with his native country during the 1920s. He renewed these connections more intensively only in the early 1930s, when he became a member of the Umělecká beseda (Artistic Forum), and it was only in 1934 that he came to Bohemia again after twenty years, to visit his exhibition at the Municipal House organized by the Artistic Forum. Until then, it appears that Adolphe Basler negotiated all sales of his works and participation in exhibitions on his behalf." [Pravdová 2022, p. 59]

Among the 36 exhibited oil paintings, silver pencil drawings, and numerous prints and etchings at the Prague exhibition were several works now housed in major museums. For instance, the board of the newly established Modern Gallery (predecessor to the National Gallery in Prague) purchased two paintings directly from the exhibition: Still Life with Fruit (1921, oil on canvas, 46 × 55.5 cm, inv. no. O 3194) and The Shepherd (1922, oil on canvas, 89 × 116 cm, inv. no. O 3195), along with two drawings and seventeen etchings. The selection of works in the exhibition catalogue makes it clear that the exhibition included only Kubín's postwar oeuvre – works created primarily in the Auvergne and Lower Alps regions, where he had fully developed his new style, synthesizing modernist tendencies with classical inspirations. His stylistic shift was visibly influenced by thorough study of the old masters, which fundamentally distinguished him from his Czech contemporaries, who drew inspiration almost exclusively from the modernist canon. [Pravdová 2022, p. 62]

In his essay Vývoj dnešního malířství  (The Development of Contemporary Painting) in the catalogue introduction, André Thérive (a French writer and critic who knew Coubine through Galerie Berthe Weill, among other connections) praised precisely this harmonious synthesis of intellect and emotion, enthusiastically comparing the artist to Gustave Courbet. [Thérive 1923a] He emphasized Kubín's ability to combine mathematical precision with intuitive grasp of nature, placing his work on par with the finest examples of contemporary art. The essay provides valuable insight into the very positive reception of Kubín's work by the French public at that time.

Among Czech professional audiences, however, the exhibition received mixed reactions. While Emil Pacovský, echoing Thérive's assessment, stated that "Kubín's exhibition pairs very well with the current exhibition of French Modern Art in Prague – not only complementing the collections of the newest French art but doing so very honourably, showing how thoughtfully, seriously, and cautiously a Czech artist accepts foreign culture, however respected and valued it may be." [Pacovský 1923, p. 62] On the other hand, Josef Čapek in Lidové noviny uncompromisingly characterized Coubine's works as an "expression of calm resignation," with something "withered" hovering above them. [Čapek 1923, p. 7]

Following this exhibition, several articles were dedicated to Kubín in Volné směry XXII, attempting to evaluate his latest work while drawing attention to a new French monograph about Coubine by Maurice Raynal. The artist thus firmly entered the consciousness of the broader public, and the exhibition became the catalyst for organizing further exhibitions: in 1927 and 1931 at the Mánes Fine Arts Association, and subsequently an exhibition organized by the Artistic Forum in 1934 to celebrate the painter's fiftieth birthday at the Municipal House in Prague.

Charlotte Zimová

Works Cited

Čapek 1923: jč (Josef Čapek), Výstava obrazů O. Kubína (Coubine), Lidové noviny XXXI, 1923, no. 259, 26. 5., p. 7

Kubín 1923: Otokar Kubín (Coubine): Soubor obrazů, kreseb a grafiky) exh. cat., Mánes Hall, Prague, Praha 1923

Kubín, Vzpomínky: Otakar Kubín, Vlastní vzpomínky (typescript), undated, Archive of the National Gallery in Prague, fonds Otakar Kubín, 134 AA 3716

Pravdová 2022: Anna Pravdová, École de Paris a čeští umělci v meziválečné Paříži, Praha 2022

Siblík 2000: Jiří Siblík, Malířské dílo. Otakar Kubín–Coubine, Praha 2000

Thérive 1923: André Thérive, „Vývoj dnešního malířství“, in: Otokar Kubín (Coubine): Soubor obrazů, kreseb a grafiky [exh. cat., May–June 1923, Mánes Hall, Prague], Praha 1923, n. pag.

Further Reading

André Thérive, Othon Coubine, Leipzig 1923

Georg Biermann, Othon Coubine, Junge Kunst Band 33, Leipzig 1923

Jiří Siblík, Otakar Kubín, Praha 1980

Karel Šourek, Malíři a sochaři Umělecké besedy 1946, Sv. 1, Praha 1946

Výstava francouzského umění XIX. a XX. století LXVI. výstava Spolku výtvarných umělců Mánes [exh. cat., May–June 1923, Municipal House, Prague], Praha 1923

Archival Sources

Archive of the National Gallery in Prague, Fonds Otakar Kubín

Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris, Fonds Othon (Otakar, Otokar) Coubine (Kubín)

Anonymous author, „Manes“, Ročenka Československé republiky III, 1924, no. 1, p. 134

Anonymous author, Výtvarné umění, Venkov: orgán České strany agrární XVIII, 1923, no. 121, 27. 5. 1923, p. 8

Anonymous author, Výstava Otakara Kubína z Paříže, Lidové noviny XXXI, 1923, no. 250, 20. 5. 1923, p. 7

Anonymous author, Výstavy a zájem obecenstva, Spolek výtvarníků Mánes..., Lidové noviny XXXII, 1924, no. 154, 25. 3. 1924, p. 7

Anonymous author, Ausstellung Ot. Kubín, Prager Presse III, 1923, vol. 3, no. 154, 7. 6. 1923, p. 7

Anonymous author, Ausstellung Ot. Kubín, Prager Presse III, 1923, vol. 3, no. 156, 9. 6. 1923, p. 5

Anonymous author, Ausstellung Ot. Kubín, Prager Presse III, 1923, vol. 3, no. 163, 16. 6. 1923, p. 5

Anonymous author, Ausstellung Ot. Kubín, Prager Presse III, 1923, vol. 3, no. 164, 17. 6. 1923, p. 11

Anonymous author, Ausstellung Ot. Kubín, Prager Presse III, 1923, vol. 3, no. 168, 21. 6. 1923, p. 6.

S. V. U. Mánes uspořádal v roce 1923 osm výstav..., Volné směry XXII, no. 1, 1923–1924, p. 224