Databáze uměleckých výstav v českých zemích 1820 – 1950

During the second half of January 1926, the rooms of the Fine Arts Association (Krasoumná jednota) in Prague's Rudolfinum housed an exhibition of Concordia – the association of German writers and artists in Bohemia ("Concordia", Verein deutscher Schriftsteller und Künstler in Böhmen), a traditional organization whose roots reached deep into the 19th century. Organized by the Concordia’s painting section, the exhibition showcased the current work of German-speaking artists from Czechoslovakia. Concordia had been founded in Prague’s U Celestýnů house in 1871 and modelled on its namesake in Vienna. From the 1890s through to the 1930s, the Concordia’s painting section held a group exhibition roughly once a year. In 1895, the Concordia split apart, with some of its artists establishing the Association of German Artists in Bohemia (Verein deutscher bildender Künstler in Böhmen). Several of the older artists who participated in the 1926 Rudolfinum exhibition, such as Georg Jilowsky, Otty Schneider, Emil Orlik, and Wenzel Franz Jäger, had been members of that group in the years before the war.

The exhibition was a cross-generational showcase typical of membership associations at the time, presenting works for sale across three generations. Remarkably, a third of the 33 participating artists were women, which was by no means usual for the era, especially given that the Concordia was a well-established, traditional association. The show presented 163 works, including 50 oil paintings. Works on paper predominated: 23 watercolours, 16 drawings, and a further third of the exhibits in the form of prints. There were also five sculptures – four by Johannes Watzal and one by Alexander Jakesh. The participating artists were represented on broadly equal terms, most showing between three and six works. There was no curatorial selection or jury process; each member simply contributed whatever they could or saw fit. Oskar Schürer, who reviewed the exhibition in Tribuna, commented on this lack of concept: "The pleasure of having an overview of German art in Bohemia is clouded by numerous compromises in selection and by a misleading title. The word 'overview' must be replaced with 'samples'." [Schürer 1926]

With the current state of knowledge about the participating artists, we can identify only a few dozen of the works catalogued, based on their titles, media, and asking prices. Even this small group suggests that the quality of the exhibits was indeed uneven and that the show leaned heavily towards contemporary art. There were only a few cases of older artists exhibiting their earlier, more acclaimed works.

In terms of participating artists, the exhibition offered a varied, if somewhat incongruous, mix: established doyens of the oldest generation alongside regional stalwarts, recent graduates of the Prague Academy, emerging talents, and several little-known, largely amateur women artists. Compared with the similarly structured exhibition of the Brno Scholle, held at the Rudolfinum a few months later, Concordia stood out for its strong representation of women. Among them, alongside now-forgotten names, were artists of real distinction: Otty Schneider and the rising star Charlotte Schrötter-Radnitz. Some of the women artists were simultaneously members of the Prague Verein deutscher Malerinnen. Bohumil Markalous pointed this out in his review for Rozpravy Aventina, while also noting the qualitative unevenness of the works: "A typically German exhibition, containing paintings by Prague's German ladies and, at the same time, genuine artworks: Klemm, Thiemann, E. Orlik, Michl, Kauders, Schrötter." [Markalous 1926] Also worth noting is the presence of Gertrud Kauders, who would go on to exhibit with the Prager Secession, and of Artur Ressel, a remarkable Neue Sachlichkeit painter from the Jizera Mountains, though his catalogue entry at the time still listed the Ore Mountains village of Hermsdorf as his base. The core artists of the future Prager Secession, Fritz Kausek and Karl Wagner, were also represented.

"On the whole, then: academicism, provincial mediocrity, comfortable and ingratiating amateurism, an absence of figures of any exceptional significance, and little in the way of vigorous or distinctive artistic ambition" – this is how Viktor Nikodém summed up the Concordia exhibition for Národní osvobození [Nikodém 1926]. His verdict was sharp and sweeping, yet accurate in many respects. The exhibition was no modernist landmark, but it offered a faithful reflection of the moment – shortly before the founding of the Prager Secession, which would immediately impose more rigorous standards of selection and draw in artists of the youngest generation. Nevertheless, Concordia had its genuine highlights, some of which subsequently travelled to the Venice Biennale or the Exhibition of Contemporary Culture in Brno. For those exploring the gaps and blind spots in the research of this period, the Concordia exhibition is a rewarding subject precisely because of its breadth and the participation of artists who remain unappreciated today.

Ivo Habán

Works Cited

Markalous 1926: Dr. B. [Bohumil] Markalous, Concordia (Dům umělců), Rozpravy Aventina 1, 1925–1926, no. 6., p. 79

Nikodém 1926: N. [Viktor Nikodém], Výstava německých umělců z Čech (sekce „Concordia“) v Krasoumné jednotě, Národní osvobození 3, 1926, no. 30., 30. 1., p. 3

Schürer 1926: Oskar Schürer, Pražské umělecké výstavy, Tribuna VIII, 1926, no. 21, 24. 1., p. 7

Further Reading

Anna Habánová, Dějiny uměleckého spolku Metznerbund 1920–1945, Liberec 2016, pp. 22–45, 351–352

Ivo Habán, Junge Kunst: mezi Francií a německou novou věcností, in: Anna Habánová (ed.), Mladí lvi v kleci. Umělecké skupiny německy hovořících výtvarníků z Čech, Moravy a Slezska v meziválečném období, Liberec – Řevnice 2013, pp. 104–117

Archival Sources

Archive of the National Gallery in Prague, fonds Moderní galerie, výstřižková služba, nákupy děl [Modern Gallery, newspaper clippings, acquisitions]

Anonymous author, V Krasoumné jednotě, Čech LI, 1926, no. 13, 13. 1. p. 7.

Anonymous author, Výstava německých umělců z Čech (sekce „Concordia“) v Krasoumné jednotě (Dům umělců-Parlament), Čech LI, 1926, no. 25, 26. 1., p. 8

Dr. B. [Bohumil] Markalous, Concordia (Dům umělců), Rozpravy Aventina I, 1925–1926, no. 6., p. 79