Databáze uměleckých výstav v českých zemích 1820 – 1950

The Czechoslovak Ministry of Agriculture prepared the Slavic Agricultural Exhibition to celebrate the centenary of the abolition of serfdom and the First Slavic Congress in 1848. In the autumn of 1947, the Communist Minister Julius Ďuriš appointed Jiří Kroha as the chief designer of the exhibition, and Kroha then invited several artists and architects to collaborate with him, including Zdeněk Pešánek and Vlasta Štursová.

In April 1948, a large exhibition area was built at the Prague Exhibition Grounds. Due to the lack of time, materials, and manpower – difficulties described by Jiří Kroha in the magazine Architektura ČSR – the architects decided to use standardized and typified architectural elements [Kroha 1948a, p. 292]. This determined the layout and form of the individual, mostly wooden, pavilions with exposed structures. Some of the older buildings were also used to house the exhibition, such as the Industrial Palace, which, together with Zdeněk Pešánek’s light-kinetic fountain, occupied a dominant place in the central part of the exhibition grounds. Inside the palace was the Agricultural People’s Pantheon, along with exhibitions of agriculture, Slavic cooperation, research, and field crop production. In other pavilions, the organizers presented the following themes: forestry, animal husbandry, agricultural education, the new village, and the village woman. The show also included replicas of Slavic village houses with folk products and a rich accompanying program, such as fairground attractions, presentations of live animals, film screenings, and dance and theatre performances.

The Slavic Agricultural Exhibition aimed to present the new agricultural policy and educate the public. It was not primarily an art exhibition, but artistic realizations played an important role in how the organizers wanted to achieve their goal. The displays took the form of a Gesamtkunstwerk in which sculptures, paintings, mosaics, textiles, and photographs were combined with natural objects, prints, texts, and other exhibits to create a unique, almost surrealistic work. According to Jiří Kroha, the interiors were meant to evoke “a spontaneous panoramic impression, without any details escaping” [Kroha 1948a, p. 284]. In his text for the magazine Var, Zdeněk Nejedlý welcomed the presence of artworks, arguing that “a picture has a more immediate and therefore more profound effect on the viewer than a diagram” [Nejedlý 1948, p. 186]. Although the exhibition was described at the time as the first socialism-oriented show, it featured artists from “all living artistic movements” [Kroha 1948b, p. 110]. Future representatives of Socialist Realism (e. g. Adolf Zábranský, Otakar Švec, Jan Kavan, Karel Pokorný) were represented alongside avant-garde artists (e. g. Libor Fára, Josef Istler, Ladislav Zívr), some of whom still considered themselves Surrealists. The organizers also included paintings by Antonín Mánes, Julius Mařák, and Antonín Hudeček, as well as cartoons by Mikoláš Aleš from the collections of the National Gallery [fd 1948, p. 3]. The exhibition also featured works by artists who specialized in depicting folk village life (e. g. Karel Svolinský, Josef Lada, Alena Ladová, Marie Kuklová). By exhibiting the diverse works of art, the organizers intended to show the versatility of the working people. In general, however, the selected works depicted agricultural, natural, and social themes.

The central place at the head of the Agricultural People’s Pantheon was reserved for the monumental painting entitled The Unity of Town and Country by František Kaláb, which illustrated the history of serfdom, together with the paintings The Liberation of the Czech People by Václav Koutský, The Liberation of the Slovak People by Bedřich Hoffstädter, Peasant Revolt by Josef Brož and The Life of a Feudal Peasant by Richard Wiesner. An art installation with flags of Slavic countries and doves as symbols of peace hanging from the ceiling enhanced the dramatic effect of this exhibition. The interior of the Forestry Pavilion had an equally impressive design: the exhibition committee (under the direction of Karel Loder) installed a canopy that represented a glowing sky.

The generously designed exhibition attracted a record number of visitors – over 4 million – and was regarded by contemporaries as a groundbreaking event. Shortly before the official opening on May 2, 1948, Jiří Koťátko, an employee of the Ministry of Agriculture, described the exhibition as a new type of show, which, unlike previous agricultural exhibitions, was “overflowing” with spiritual content [Koťátko 1948, p. 326]. Most reviewers expressed the same opinion, emphasizing the well-prepared ideological content related to the new political order. The exhibition received unprecedented, largely positive media coverage, partly because the regime had already introduced censorship. Writers appreciated the educational character of the exhibition and its popularity with the public, including not only agricultural workers but also Prague university students, as Oldřich Švestka noted in his review for the journal Tvorba [Švestka 1948, p. 371]. A few critical reviews appeared during the preparation phase of the exhibition. In February 1948, an anonymous author in Svobodný směr drew attention to the imbalance in the composition of the exhibition committee, which was dominated by Communist Party members.  According to the reviewer, this cast a “shadow of suspicion” over the whole enterprise and implied that “instead of a Slavic agricultural exhibition, it would again become a political manifesto of one ideology” [Anonymous author 1948, p. 3].

Rather than being a pioneer of socialist exhibition practice, we now appreciate the exhibition for its innovative artistic design, which presented each theme using the methods of scenography.

Magdalena Dědičová

Works Cited

Anonymous author 1948: Anonymous author, Velké překvapení páně Ďurišovo, Svobodný směr IV, 1948, no. 42, 19. 2., p. 3

fd 1948: fd, Kulturní hlídka, Ještě k Slovanské zemědělské výstavě, Národní osvobození IXX, 1948, no. 158, 9. 7., p. 3

Koťátko 1948: Jiří Koťátko, Výstava nového typu, K ideologii Slovanské zemědělské výstavy, Tvorba XVII, 1948, no. 17, 28. 4., p. 326

Kroha 1948a: Jiří Kroha, Slovanská zemědělská výstava v Praze 1948, Architektura ČSR VII, 1948, no. 9, pp. 273–296

Kroha 1948b: Jiří Kroha, Výstavy v ČSR, Blok III, 1948–1949, no. 2, pp. 108–110

Nejedlý 1948: Zdeněk Nejedlý, Umění na Zemědělské výstavě, Var I, 1948, pp. 185–187

Švestka 1948: Oldřich Švestka, Výstava, kterou stvořil lid, Tvorba XVII, 1948, no. 19, 12. 5., p. 371

Further Reading

Milena Bartlová, Jindřich vybíral a kol., Budování státu: reprezentace Československa v umění, architektuře a designu, Praha 2015

Marcela Macharáčková, 1903–1974. Jiří Kroha v proměnách umění 20.století, Brno 2007

Tereza Petišková, Československý socialistický realismus 1948–1958, Praha 2002

Rostislav Švácha, Architektura čtyřicátých let, in: Rostislav Švácha – Marie Platovská (ed.), Dějiny Českého výtvarného umění V, 1939/1958, Praha 2005, p. 31–73

Archival Sources

NTM, AAS, fonds Jiří Kroha, Slovanská zemědělská výstava v Praze (1947, 1948) [Jiří Kroha, Slavic Agricultural Exhibition in Prague (1947, 1948)]

Anonymous author, Slovanská výstava – zdroj poučení pro zemědělce, Národní osvobození IXX, 1948, no. 106, 6. 5., p. 5

Anonymous author, Chcete si zatančit lidové tance?, Národní osvobození IXX, 1948, no. 107, 7. 5., p. 3

Anonymous author, Ohňová stěna nad Vltavou, Stráž lidu IV, 1948, no. 113, 14. 5., p. 3

Anonymous author, Největší výstava myslivosti bude na SZV, Obrana lidu III, 1948, no. 121, 25. 5., p. 4

Anonymous author, Spolupráce Slovanské zemědělské výstavy s XI. Všesokolským sletem, Stráž na Dyji III, 1948, no. 23, 4. 6., p. 2

Anonymous author, Slavnostní osvětlení v době výstavy, Hlas Jeseníků III, 1948, no. 18, 1. 5., p. 3

Anonymous author, Slovanská zemědělská výstava končí, Lidová demokracie IV, 1948, no. 159, 11. 7., p. 2

Anonymous author, Výstavka uměleckých soch na SZV, Rudé právo XXVIII, 1948, no. 143, 19. 6., p. 2

Anonymous author, Zlatý hřeb Slovanské zemědělské výstavy, Stráž na Dyji III, 1948, no. 21, 21. 5., p. 4

DA, Slovanská zemědělská výstava skončila, Vystřídaly se 4 miliony návštěvníků, Obrana lidu II, 1948, no. 161, 13. 7., p. 4

Rdk, Vše pro pohodlí diváka, Proč navštívíme výstavní kino, Práce IV, 1948, no. 104, 4. 5., p. 4

TP, Sté výročí zrušení poddanství, Obrana lidu II, 1948, no. 108, 8. 5., p. 4