Databáze uměleckých výstav v českých zemích 1820 – 1950

In September 1934, Krasoumná jednota [Fine Arts Association] provided space in a tenement house on Pštrossova Street for a group exhibition of German-speaking artists from northern Moravia and Silesia. This was a selection of the latest works by Silesian Germans, associated under the banner of the Silesian County of the Reich Association of Visual Artists (Schlesischer Gau des Reichverbandes der bildenden Künstler) and an exhibition of the Kunstring Association of German Visual Artists in Moravská Ostrava (Vereinigung der deutschen bildenden Künstler in der Tschechoslovakei "Kunstring", Mährisch Ostrau). The show thus brought together two separate artistic groups from two different geographical regions. It is an interesting example of how the art of ethnic minorities was presented in the Czechoslovak capital. From the Moravian and Silesian perspective, this was the largest interwar show of the local German-speaking scene in Prague, modelled on the exhibition of the Brno Scholle in Prague’s Rudolfinum in 1926. 

In contrast to other, similarly designed annual exhibitions in German-speaking centres and regions of Czechoslovakia, this show enjoyed considerable attention from the Czech-language media. The Modern Gallery’s collection of newspaper clippings contains eleven critical reviews and seven shorter reports or reproductions, a number that was far from usual for this type of an exhibition. These sources give us an idea about the exhibition’s content and the artists represented. Rather than giving information about the exhibition’s artistic importance, these newspaper articles offer insight into its social dimension, the stratification of the Czechoslovak art world and generally the way regional art was perceived in Prague. The exhibition catalogue has not been found; the reviewer for the Ostrava daily Morgenzeitung wrote that it did not exist. The show contained works by 28 artists. Most of them were painters, print makers and sculptors, accompanied by applied art makers and one architect; fifteen were members of the Kunstring. The artifacts were numbered, and in the case of some artworks, the artists’ first names were likely confused or misspelled.

As usual, the tone of the reviews reflected the authors’ ethnic origins, but the opinions of both the Czech and German writers were relatively tame. The more sober and informed reviewers agreed that the exhibition had the usual weaknesses of cross-sectional shows, such as unevenness in the quality of artworks with some average and even sub-standard pieces. The space and context, too, limited the individual works’ appeal, as various genres, techniques and levels of execution were mixed together. The art historian František Kovárna summarized his evaluation as follows: “Krasoumná jednota which keeps itself alive by mere inertia, presents an art association from Silesia and North Moravia. These artists’ names are new to the Prague audience. They are painters, sculptors, draftsmen and an architect, who all live far from the centre, using their art to fulfill the needs of their region, to which they are tied not only by fate but also by the extent of their artistic possibilities. The exhibition is therefore no surprise but there is something solid in it, mostly something ponderously diligent. It is a landscape work and that is where its strengths are.” [Kovárna 1934]

B. S. Urban was even stricter in his evaluation: “Most of the exhibiting painters and sculptors are content with merely imitating reality using the academic template and only the slight fluctuations toward Impressionism or New Objectivity reveal a somewhat livelier rippling.” [Urban 1934]

Reviewers who went beyond lists and laconic commentaries most often praised the paintings by Paul Gebauer, Leo Fitz and Salomon Salomonowitz. Critics also appreciated sculptures by Maria Melzer, whose work has survived in mere fragments. Her life, too, remains largely unknown, as does the life and work of another Kunstring sculptor, Elfriede Tuma.

Two public institutions supported the exhibition, held at a time of lingering economic crisis. Franz Spina, the German Minister of Health and advocate of the cooperation between Czechs and Germans, purchased Willy Paupie's Nordmährisches Gehöft (North Moravian Homestead) for his ministry. The German board of the Modern Gallery purchased paintings by Felix Bibus (Hafen in Baška) and Viktor Frank (Eingeschneiter Restaurationsgarten), as well as two drawings by Karel Harrer and five prints by Erwin Zichlarz. It was a modest profit but thanks to this symbolical gesture, the works by regional artists have been preserved to this day as examples of the everyday exhibition practice in the regions. Reviewers were conscious of the limitations and eclectic nature of the regional cultural scene and so most of the texts, even the German language ones, were critical in this sense. 

However, some authors focused on a more general aspect, namely the confrontation of art in the centre and the regions. These ruminations appeared in texts by August Ströbel, Jaromír Pečírka and František Kovárna, the latter of whom wrote: “For this comparison alone the Prague audience should take note of these Germans, as they show the difference between a cultural province and a cultural periphery. We would see how these artists live in their region not only as humans but also as artists, trying to satisfy local artistic needs to the best of their ability. They are perhaps better at dwelling in their land than us, attracted as we are to the centre where a less gifted artist loses his solid provincial craftsmanship and, pushing the limits his talent, becomes an arriviste” [Kovárna 1934].

From today’s point of view, the exhibition has cultural-historical significance. It took place immediately before the retrospective show of the Ostrava Kunstring organized in October 1934 on the occasion Kunstring’s ten-year anniversary. Held in Ostrava’s House of Arts, this was an unusually ambitious exhibition accompanied by an extensive catalogue. The Prague exhibition of North Moravian and Silesian Germans was also one of the last group exhibitions to have been spared the political pressure of the Reichsverband (Reich Association of Artists), founded not long before, which in the following years tried to dictate the content of the works and exhibitions held by regional German-speaking associations. The more artistically ambitious groups with a stronger social background in the larger centres, such as Prager Secession and Kunstring, resisted this pressure better and longer than the more fragile and modest associations on the periphery, whose members’ rendition of Heimatkunst often skirted around the abyss of kitsch and ideological ballast.

Ivo Habán

Works Cited

Kovárna 1934: F. K. [František Kovárna], Regionální umění, Pražské noviny, 1934, 13. 10., Archive of the National Gallery Prague, fonds Krasoumná jednota, sign. no. AA1502/2, newspaper clippings from 1933–1935

Urban 1934: B. S. Urban, Moravskoslezští výtvarníci, Národní listy, 1934, 20. 9., Archive of the National Gallery Prague, fonds Krasoumná jednota, sign. no. AA1502/2, newspaper clippings from 1933–1935

Further Reading

Ivo Habán, Modernista ve víru Heimatkunst. Ein Moderner im Sog der Heimatkunst, in: Ivo Habán – Anna Habánová (edd.), Paul Gebauer, Liberec 2018, pp. 104–145

Pavel Šopák, Výtvarná kultura a dějepis umění v českém Slezsku a na Ostravsku do roku 1970, Opava 2011

Archival Sources

Archive of the National Gallery Prague, fonds Moderní galerie, nákupy děl [Modern Gallery, purchases]

Anonymous author, Die Ausstellung mährisch-schlesischer Künstler, Bohemia, 1934, 22. 9., Archive of the National Gallery Prague, fonds Krasoumná jednota, sign. no. AA1502/2, newspaper clippings from 1933–1935

Anonymous author, Prage Käufe von Bildern der Mährisch-schlesischen Ausstellung, Morgenzeitung (Mähr.-Ostrau), 1934, 1. 10., Archive of the National Gallery Prague, fonds Krasoumná jednota, sign. no. AA1502/2, newspaper clippings from 1933–1935

Anonymous author, Souborná výstava moravsko-slezských umělců, Lada (Mladá Boleslav), 1934, 27. 9., Archive of the National Gallery Prague, fonds Krasoumná jednota, sign. no. AA1502/2, newspaper clippings from 1933–1935

Anonymous author, Souborná výstava moravsko-slezských umělců, Letem světem (Praha), 1934, 11. 9. [Reproduction of Paul Gebauer’s painting Family Portrait], Archive of the National Gallery Prague, fonds Krasoumná jednota, sign. no. AA1502/2, newspaper clippings from 1933–1935

Anonymous author, Výstava moravsko-slezských umělců v Krasoumné Jednotě, Právo lidu, 1934, 20. 9., Archive of the National Gallery Prague, fonds Krasoumná jednota, sign. no. AA1502/2, newspaper clippings from 1933–1935

Anonymous author, Mährische und schlesische Künstler stellen im Prager Kunstverein aus, Zeit im Bild, 1934, 7. 9. ? [reproductions: Engelbert Kaps, Richard Wagner, August Walter Müller, Arbeitslose, Paul Gebauer, Familienbildnis, Theodor Malléner, Porträtbüste des Ing. Dr. h. c. Adolf Sonnenschein), Archive of the National Gallery Prague, fonds Krasoumná jednota, sign. no. AA1502/2, newspaper clippings from 1933–1935

Kr [?], Němečtí malíři moravsko-slezští, Polední list (Praha), 1934, 24. 9., Archive of the National Gallery Prague, fonds Krasoumná jednota, sign. no. AA1502/2, newspaper clippings from 1933–1935