Výstava životního díla sochaře Jana Štursy | Databáze uměleckých výstav v českých zemích 1820

Commentary

The exhibition of Jan Štursa's oeuvre had a symbolic dimension, but most importantly, it breathed new life into Czech sculpture. “Štursa's connection with the period he grew up in was so intensive and so active that his work stands victoriously above his time and even now, it can serve as an example of an artist's energetic attitude to life,” says Vladimír Novotný in his introduction to the exhibition catalogue [Novotný 1950, n.p.]. His words point to Štursa's influence on young artists such as Otakar Švec, Zdeněk Pešánek, Hana Wichterlová, Bedřich Stefan and Josef Wagner. Štursa's plastic expression was rooted in the local tradition – the realism of Josef Václav Myslbek and the Czech Baroque. However, his efforts were aimed at capturing subjective feelings and female sensuality. Štursa actively connected both these stylistic points of departure with contemporary Western trends seen in the work of Émile-Antoine Bourdelle and Auguste Rodin, thus embodying the principles that Mánes was promoting.

In 1926, Mánes members organized the first, small posthumous exhibition in honour of Štursa. On the 25^th anniversary of his death in 1950, Mánes opened a touring retrospective of Štursa's work under the auspices of Zdeněk Nejedlý, then Minister of Education, Sciences and Arts. Co-organized by the National Gallery, which lent most of the artworks, the exhibition started in the Mánes building and then moved to the Brno House of Arts. In total, it showcased 300 sculptures, oils, watercolours and drawings by Štursa.

In contrast to the 1926 exhibition, this retrospective concentrated on the individual periods of Štursa's oeuvre, representing them with iconic works. This selection of prominent examples of Štursa's work was the last show to have been organized by the Mánes Association, symbolically concluding Mánes's efforts to present the Czech-French artistic dialogue.

Martina Bezoušková