Databáze uměleckých výstav v českých zemích 1820 – 1950

After the end of the First World War, the Mánes Fine Arts Association continued promoting French art. This exhibition of contemporary French art reflected Mánes's ongoing contacts with French gallerists and confirmed the association's long-standing conviction that creative impulses came from the West. At the same time, Mánes's members never lost their nostalgic connection with cultural events of the early 20^th century – the exhibition of Auguste Rodin (1902) and the impressionist exhibitions in 1902 and 1907 – a lineage emphasized in the exhibition's catalogue introduction.

Marking a new direction in Mánes's exhibition practice, Art of Contemporary France opened on March 7, 1931 in the association's new building on the Riegrovo Embankment. Artworks on display there represented three generations of artists who set the tone in modern art from Impressionism through Expressionism, Fauvism, Cubism all the way to Primitivism. In total, the exhibition presented 220 paintings, sculptures, drawings and prints. “Bonnard, Matisse and Maillol are the old gentlemen here, youthfully brisk and ambitious in their seventies, while quinquagenarians are represented by Derain, Vlaminck, Picasso and Braque. Léger, Lipchitz, Laurens, Masson, Modigliani and Utrillo speak for the third generation” [Filip 1931, p. 6]. This colourful account by Antonín Matějček aims to convey the significance of the presented material and to point out the change in artistic approach. In connection to the exhibition,Václav Vilém Štech also describes this change, defining it as the departure from academic and salon art toward a practice based on artists setting their own artistic principles. Critics also appreciated the evolutionary values present in the work of “the others” (Henri Matisse, André Derain, Maurice Utrillo, Maurice de Vlaminck) [Janoušek 1931, p. 3]. Of all the artworks at the exhibition, Aristide Maillol's sculpture Venus with a Necklace received the greatest response in the press.

The show's concept was based on characteristic examples, thus complementing the previous, retrospective exhibition French Art of the 19^th and 20^th Centuries (1923). The idea to only present the main representatives of the individual stylistic trends likely came up due to time pressure. Mánes aimed to refresh Czech-French artistic contacts and get a head start over Umělecká beseda (Artistic Forum) which was preparing a similar exhibition for June 1931. In the period when Mánes opened its exhibition, members of Umělecká beseda began to choose and transport artworks for their own show entitled L'École de Paris. This competition in Francophilia was also discussed in contemporary periodicals. Reviewers of Art of Contemporary France aptly described the show as an overview of famous names and original artworks which, however, failed to form an artistically balanced set. This may have been why Mánes decided to organize lectures within the exhibition space on the main artistic trends and their representatives. As part of these lectures, Vincenc Kramář talked about Cubism, while Antonín Matějček focused on the oeuvre of Auguste Renoir, represented at the Prague exhibition by the paintings Large Nude and Woman in Red. In Matějček's view, Renoir's rendition of colourful, luminous mist was key to understanding the younger generation of artists active at the beginning of the 20^th century. However, his words of appreciation pointing out the important conditions for stylistic change could not hide the considerable gap in the show's presentation of French modern art caused by the absence of works by Vincent van Gogh and other Post-Impressionists.

The exhibition was not a financial success with likely only one artwork sold: Bonnard's Conversation in Provence (1912) [Uhrová – Müllerová – Vlček 2003, p. 10].

Martina Bezoušková

Works cited

Filip 1931: Otakar Filip, Výtvarné umění. Umění současné Francie II., Československá republika CCLII, 1931, no. 59, 10. 3., p. 6

Janoušek 1931: František Janoušek, Umění současné Francie v síni S. V. U. Mánes, Národní osvobození VIII, 1931, no. 81, 22. 3., p. 3

Uhrová–Müllerová–Vlček 2003: Olga Uhrová – Katarína Müllerová – Tomáš Vlček (edd.), Francouzské umění 19. a 20. století, Praha 2013, p. 10

Archival sources

Archive of the National Gallery Prague, exhibition catalogue (VP - AK 967 - SCHWP, fonds W. Nowak, no. 96, katalogy [catalogues], file 8).

Archive of the National Gallery Prague, fonds Moderní galerie (1901–1942), Výstřižkové knihy k výstavám, umělcům a činnosti MG i jiných galerií [books of clippings for exhibitions, artists and the activity of the Modern Gallery and other galleries], 1927–1942, acq. no. 939, vol. 4

Prague City Archives, fonds Spolek výtvarných umělců Mánes, Výstavní činnost. Umění současné Francie. [Exhbibitions. Art of Contemporary France] 1931 (March – April)

A. N., Venuše s náhrdelníkem, Lidové noviny XXXIX, 1931, no. 161, 29. 3., p. 7

nn., Přednáškové a debatní kursy na výstavě francouzského umění v Mánesu, Národní osvobození VIII, 1931, no. 67, 8. 3., p. 4

nn., Světové umění, Venkov XXVI, 1931, no. 70, 22. 3., p. 9

nn., Umění současné Paříže, Národní listy LXXI, 1931, no. 46, 15. 2., p. 9

nn., Umění. Výstava umění současné Francie, Národní politika XLIX, 1931, no. 88, 29. 3., p. 10

nn., Ve výstavě Umění současné Francie, Lidové noviny XXXIX, 1931, no. 198, 19. 4., p. 10

nn., Ve výstavě Umění současné Francie, Lidové noviny XXXIX, 1931, no. 205, 23. 4., p. 12

nn., Výstava umění současné Francie v Mánesu, České slovo XXIII, 1931, no. 87, 12. 4., p. 17

nn., Výstava umění současné Francie v Mánesu, Československá republika CCLII, 1931, no. 86, 11. 4., p. 5

nn., Výstava umění současné Francie, Právo lidu XL, 1931, no. 59, 10. 3., p. 6

nn., Výstava umění současné Francie, Právo lidu XL, 1931, no. 64, 15. 3., p. 8

Jaromír Pečírka, Výstavy, Rozpravy Aventina VI, 1931, no. 28, 26. 3., p. 334

Václav Vilém Štech, Náboženství malby, Eva IV, 1931, no. 13, 1. 5., p. 24