Date:January 1 – January 9, 1928
Place: Teplice, Museum of Teplice
Organizer:Museum Association Teplice-Schönau
This exhibition consisted of more than fifty (51?) paintings by Czech-German Jewish painter Ludwig Blum (1891–1974) depicting Near Eastern landscapes and scenes.
Blum emigrated to Mandatory Palestine in 1923 but he returned to Czechoslovakia on regular basis until the beginning of the Second World War; he usually stayed in his native town of Líšeň. Other than visiting family, he pursued his extensive exhibition activities during his trips to Czechoslovakia. The art market in Palestine in the 1920s and 1930s was rather limited, with no wealthy clients and collectors, making Blum financially dependent on selling his paintings in Europe. Blum's first solo exhibition took place during his first trip back to Czechoslovakia in 1925. It was held at Brno's German House of Artists. During his second visit in December 1927, Blum organized a sale exhibition at Prague's Jewish City Hall.
The exhibition Palestine in Images took place in the main hall of the Teplice Museum at the beginning of January 1928, during Blum's third visit to Czechoslovakia. It is not clear why he chose this particular museum. We may assume that this was because of his friendly contacts with members of the Zionist Makabi sports club in Teplice, who probably helped him organize the exhibition at the local museum. Blum was an active member of the Makabi club in Brno since his childhood and he maintained warm relationships with Jewish athletes in Czechoslovakia throughout the entire First Republic period.
In all likelihood, the exhibition had no catalogue, so our information about it comes from reviews in the press, brief notes and one archival source, namely a letter from Blum to his wife, in which he mentions the show. Here, Blum writes that the director of the Teplice museum is captivated by his paintings and that he predicts great commercial success. This, however, did not happen, and Blum only managed to sell some of his paintings, failing to repeat the success of his 1925 Brno exhibition. For this reason, his next shows took place in larger cities such as Amsterdam, Berlin and London.
The notes about the exhibition published in the local German newspapers suggest that the exhibited works included city panoramas, landscapes and portraits from the preceding two years and that the exhibition was well attended. The reviewers praised Blum's paintings for “unique luminous palette and authentically oriental, airy atmosphere” [Anonymous author 1928a]. All the reviews comment on the oriental themes in the paintings – for example Teplitzer Zeitung appreciates how Blum “understands the soul of the Orient in an admirable way” [Anonymous author 1928b] and how his works “make us feel the sunny Orient” [R. H. 1928]. Most of the paintings on display did indeed evoke visitors’ “oriental” associations. These included Blum's romantic views of the Dead Sea at sunset executed in rainbow colours, dry desert scenes with contrasting light and shadows, as well as panoramas of Jerusalem and its picturesque nooks and corners. Blum also depicted Arab markets, narrow streets with arches spanning across them, city gates and massive walls in Jerusalem's Old City. He did not leave out the Christian monuments – the exhibition features a canvas entitled Via Dolorosa and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. It is worth noticing that none of the critics mentioned themes associated with Jewish tradition such as the Western Wall, King David's Tomb, Rachel's Tomb and the numerous synagogues and Jewish cemeteries, although Blum clearly painted them in this period. There are two possible explanations: either these works were present at the exhibition and the local reviewers chose to omit them, or Blum himself did not include them as he was aware that these themes may not find admirers or buyers in Sudetenland.
In addition to Jerusalem, Blum also painted the New Tel Aviv with its Functionalist buildings and the port city of Haifa in the north. The exhibition included portraits of Bedouins in their traditional outfits, specifically women and a local sheik. Again, reviews mention no portraits of Jews, although we know that Blum's other exhibitions did feature portraits of Jewish inhabitants of Palestine. Any other mentions of Jews in Mandatory Palestine and Jewish themes in general are completely absent from the reviews and notes in the press.
In terms of the paintings' style, one of the reviewers noticed that some of Blum's canvases had a tinge of Impressionism in them, but that there was always emphasis on “carefully modelled architecture” [R. H. 1928]. When examining Blum's works from this period, it becomes evident that he was influenced by academic painting, with roots reaching back to the tradition of Realism.
All of the reviewers reacted positively to Blum's exhibition. Teplitzer Zeitung, for example, wrote that his art was founded on “tireless study and aesthetic devotion” and that the show would make a strong impression on every art lover [R. H. 1928]. There was not even a hint of negative criticism in the reviews.
Eva Janáčová
Anonym 1928a: Ausstellung L. Blum, Jerusalem: „Palästina im Bilde“, Teplitz-Schönauer Anzeiger LXVIII, 1928, no. 3, 4. 1., p. 5
Anonym 1928b: Bilderausstellung Ludwig Blum im Teplitzer Museum, Teplitzer Zeitung LX,1928, no. 1, 1. 1., p. 5
R. H. 1928: R. H., Palästina im Bilde. Gemäldeausstellung des Malers L. Blum im städtischen Museum, Teplitzer Zeitung LX, 1928, no. 5, 6. 1., p. 9
Anna Habánová (ed.), Mladí lvi v kleci. Umělecké skupiny německy hovořících výtvarníků z Čech, Moravy a Slezska v meziválečném období, Řevnice – Liberec: Arbor vitae – Oblastní galerie v Liberci 2013, p. 194
Eva Janáčová, Ludvík Blum – Malíř panoramatických pohledů na Jeruzalém, in: Židé a Morava. Kniha statí ze stejnojmenné konference konané v Muzeu Kroměřížska dne 14. 11. 2012, XIX, Kroměříž 2013, p. 196
Dalia Manor, The Real and the Ideal. The Painting of Ludwig Blum, Bejt ha-Tfucot, Tel Aviv 2009, p. 24
Central Zionist Archives, Jerusalem, A 423/6 – Blum's letter to his wife mentioning the exhibition
Anonymous author, Ausstellung L. Blum, Jerusalem: “Palästina im Bilde,” Teplitz-Schönauer Anzeiger LXVIII, 1928, no. 3, 4. 1., p. 5
Anonymous author, Bilderausstellung Ludwig Blum im Teplitzer Museum, Teplitzer Zeitung LX, 1928, no. 1, 1. 1., p. 5