The art association Artistic Forum (Umělecká beseda) organized the 1947 exhibition Mikoláš Aleš Monumental in its exhibition space on Slovanský Island. In the postwar years, Artistic Forum focused on the presentation of contemporary Czech art both at home and abroad, and it also hosted exhibitions of international art from Britain, United States, France and other countries. An ideologically tinged exhibition was dedicated to painting in the Soviet Union. These two streams of exhibition activities also included retrospectives of prominent artists who were linked to the association's past. Mikoláš Aleš Monumental was precisely such an exhibition.
Karel Šourek, an art historian and prominent member of the Artistic Forum, was probably the main driving force behind this exhibition and he likely also came up with the conception. In addition to his name, the catalogue also lists other members of the exhibition committee: artists Josef Brož, Václav Vojtěch Novák and Vlastimil Rada. But Šourek authored the main text in the catalogue and designed the catalogue’s overall layout. Moreover, the periodical Obrana lidu from August 24, 1947 published an article saying that Šourek had an opening speech at the exhibition, in which he “pointed out the positive aspects of Aleš’s work and the enriching lesson that his oeuvre offers for the present” [čt 1947]. We may therefore assume that Šourek’s role was key to the show’s conception.
As the title suggests, the exhibition was dedicated to Aleš’s monumental works. The organizers wanted to present them as a counterbalance to his illustrations for magazines, which were much better known to the public at the time. The exhibition showcased 224 artworks meant to define the monumental line in Aleš’s oeuvre. For example, the organizers included the historical painting George of Poděbrady Meets Matthias Corvinus in 1469 (1877) dating back to the beginning of Aleš’s artistic career. The visitors were most attracted to the cartoons for the decoration of the National Theatre from the turn of the 1880s including the series Homeland and a collection of allegories for the theatre’s foyer. The show also contained cartoons and sgraffito designs for apartment buildings in Prague, Pilsen and Pardubice. There were many large-format artworks and so some of the artefacts had to be exchanged during the exhibition in order to show everything.
A few days before the end, the number of visitors reached more than 70,000, making Mikoláš Aleš Monumental the best attended monographic exhibition ever held on the Czech territory up to this date. Between October 12 and 19, 1947, Artistic Forum also organized the so-called Aleš Week, which helped promote the show. At the beginning of the week, an official tribute to Aleš was held – the painter Václav Rabas delivered a celebratory speech, followed by a recitation by the actress Růžena Nasková and the Mikoláš Aleš proclamation by the actor Václav Vydra. At the end of the week, the Minister of Information Václav Kopecký paid an official visit to the exhibition, during which he delivered a speech that included the following: “everything in this exhibition contributes to the cultivation of the new spirit of national heroism with which we want to fill the hopeful new life of our people's democratic republic” [Anonymous author 1947a]. In the days of the Aleš Week, newspapers also reported that the show’s daily attendance reached up to 3,000 visitors, with tours from many Czech regions [Anonymous author 1947b].
The concept of monumentality, already discussed by Czech artists during the war years, deeply permeated the postwar artistic discourse and so the choice of theme for the Aleš exhibition appeared logical. In 1947, only a few weeks before the show, the Mánes Fine Arts Association organized an exhibition entitled Monumental Mission of Contemporary Art under the auspices of leading representatives of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. Using examples from contemporary painting and sculpture, this exhibition clearly showed what style would be preferred in the short future and where the ideological pressure would be. When evaluating the Aleš exhibition – which in and of itself was a very important and ambitious show – we need to take into account that it must have been influenced by the ideological tendencies at the time, which eventually resulted in the dominance of socialist realism after February 1948.
Václav Šafka
Works Cited
Anonymous author 1947a: Anonymous author, Výstava, která vychovává k národní hrdosti. Ministr Kopecký o výstavě Mikoláše Alše, Rudé právo XXVII, 1947, no. 245, 19. 10., p. 4
Anonymous author 1947b: Anonymous author, Venkovské výpravy na výstavu „Monumentální Mikoláš Aleš,” Obrana lidu I, 1947, no. 245, 19. 10., p
čt 1947: čt, Mikoláš Aleš monumentální, Obrana lidu I, 1947, no. 197, 24. 8., p. 5
Further Reading
Anděla Horová, Doba protektorátu a poválečná léta, in: R. Švácha – M. Platovská (edd.), Dějiny českého výtvarného umění V, 1939–1958, Praha 2005, p. 29
Eva Petrová – Ludvík Ševeček, Umělecká beseda 1863–2003 (exh. cat.), Galerie hlavního města Prahy, 2003, pp. 49–50
Karel Šourek, Monumentální Mikoláš Aleš (exh. cat.), Výtvarný odbor Umělecké besedy v Praze, 1947
Monumentální Mikoláš Aleš [Mikoláš Aleš Monumental]
Publisher: Umělecká beseda
Place and year of publication: Praha 1947
Miroslav Míčko, Monumentální Mikoláš Aleš, Práce III, 1947, no. 221, 21. 9., p. 4
pdfAnonymous author, Provolání k týdnu Mikoláše Alše, Čin III, 1947, no. 239, 12. 10., p. 3
Anonymous author, Krásná návštěva na výstavě „Monumentální Mikoláš Aleš“, Čin III, 1947, no. 247, 22. 10., p. 4
Anonymous author, Alšovu výstavu navštívilo již 70.000 návštěvníků, Čin III, 1947, no. 259, 7. 11., p. 7
Anonymous author, Bude ustavena „Společnost Mikoláše Alše“, Národní obroda III, 1947, č. 234, 8. 10., s. 3
Anonymous author, 45.000 návštěvníků výstavy „Monumentální Mikoláš Aleš“, Národní obroda III, 1947, no. 247, 23. 10, p. 3
Anonymous author, 60.000 návštěvníků výstavy „Monumentální Mikoláš Aleš“, Národní obroda III, 1947, no. 250, 26. 10., p. 5
Anonymous author, Dosáhne Alšova výstava 100.000 návštěvníků?, Národní obroda III, 1947, no. 259, 8. 11., p. 3
Anonymous author, Týden Mikoláše Alše, Obrana lidu I, 1947, no. 241, 15. 10., p. 3
Anonymous author, Bude založena společnost Mikoláše Alše, Osvobozený Našinec LXXX, 1947, no. 231, 4. 10., p. 3
Anonymous author, Hold Mikoláši Alšovi, Osvobozený Našinec LXXX, 1947, no. 239, 14. 10., p. 3
Anonymous author, Bude ustavena „Společnost Mikoláše Alše“, Rudé právo XXVII, 1947, no. 234, 7. 10., p. 2
Anonymous author, Slavnostní hold Mikoláši Alšovi, Rudé právo XXVII, 1947, no. 240, 14. 10., p. 2
Anonymous author, Docílí Alšova výstava 100.000 návštěvníků?, Rudé právo XXVII, 1947, no. 258, 6. 11., p. 2
Anonymous author, Společnost Mikoláše Alše, Slovo národa III, 1947, no. 232, 4. 10., p. 4
Anonymous author, K Alšovu týdnu, Svobodné noviny III, 1947, no. 239, 12. 10., p. 5
Anonymous author, Slavný Mikoláš Aleš, Svobodný směr III, 1947, no. 245, 19. 10., pp. 9–10
čt, Slavnostní hold Mikoláši Alšovi, Obrana lidu I, 1947, no. 240, 14. 10., p. 4
Jiří Kotalík, Mikoláš Aleš a naše doba, Život XXI, 1948, no. 2, pp. 34–41
M., „...ale bylo to honorováno až běda.“ Co dostával Aleš za své kartony, Práce III, 1947, no. 239, 12. 10., p. 3
A. Mastná-Kahligová, Zlatý koutek podzimní Prahy, Čin III, 1947, no. 245, 19. 10.1947, p. 3
oz, 45.000 návštěvníků výstavy „Monument. Mikoláš Aleš“, Obrana lidu I, 1947, no. 244, 18. 10., p. 4
oz, Návštěva na výstavě „Monumentální Mikoláš Aleš“, Obrana lidu I, 1947, no. 248, 23. 10., p. 5
r., Monumentální Mikoláš Aleš v Umělecké besedě na Slovanském ostrově, Svět v obrazech III, 1947, no. 37, 13. 9., p. 15
Vlastmil Rada, Mikoláš Aleš stále živý, Život XXI, 1948, no. 2, pp. 42–43
Oldřich Starý, Noviny a architektura, Architektura ČSR VII, 1948, no. 1–10, p. 38
Vladimír Štědrý, Slepý národ?, Svobodné noviny III, 1947, no. 238, 11. 10., pp. 1–2
