Václav Špála
Bathing
Artist
Václav Špála
(1885, Žlunice - 1946, Praha), Czech
Original Title
Bathing
Date1915
Mediumoil on canvas
Dimensions 27 × 34 cm
Classificationspaintings
Credit LineKunsthalle Praha
DescriptionVáclav Špála was a prominent Czech modernist painter whose work represents a distinctive contribution to European expressionism and fauvism. His painterly style is based on a synthesis of French modernism with references to musicality and Czech folk culture. The hallmark of Špála’s intuitive, sensuous artworks is his use of color, which he employs both as a formal device and as a carrier of expression and meaning. Špála used color to achieve an emotional impact, with his typical reduced palette consisting of reds and blues, referencing his rural upbringing and folk culture in general as well as a symbolist perception of the duality of the human and the natural. Špála was part of the generation around the art group Osma, and although he was not a member, he was equally impacted by the paintings presented at Edvard Munch’s Prague exhibition in 1905. However, Munch’s influence on Špála did not manifest in an interest in internal psychology and existentialism, but rather in a tendency toward subjectively depicting reality and painting austere, compact compositions with an emphasis on color. From 1909 onward, his works also became marked by a strong interest in constructivist topics, although improvisation and spontaneous sensory reactions to perceptions of reality remained fundamental to his work. Between 1913 and 1915, Špála’s work evolved toward an incorporation of cubism, aiming to geometrize forms and analytically deconstruct shapes. The way Špála uses cubist principles in combination with elements of futurism and orphism demonstrates his unorthodox, unconstrained approach to modernist art styles. After World War I, his work returned to a greater focus on nature and its sensory painterly portrayal in a contemporary vitalist style, which Špála fused with expressionist and fauvist influences. In the late 1920s, his practice matured into the so-called blue period with a series of landscape paintings inspired by South Bohemia and the surroundings of the Otava river. Špála’s subjective approach to painting is also present in his extensive series of still lifes and floral compositions, produced using a combination of rigid constructivist order and bold brushstrokes. From 1934 onward, his work moved toward more lyrical and intimate forms of expression, using a broader color palette and representing a sublimation of this historical period’s tense atmosphere.
This painting titled Bathing (1915) is part of a larger thematic series depicting figures of rural women bathing. Špála approached the earlier of these paintings in as fauvist-expressionist renderings of reality as perceived, synthesizing influences of Renoir, Cézanne, Matisse, and Derain. However, from 1913 to 1915, the characteristic idyllic-instinctual tone of such works became disrupted by an analytical deconstruction of forms driven by the principles of cubism, which would displace the natural, primitivizing style of his previous work for some time. The motif of bathing was an important generational theme introduced by the influences of French art—such as Paul Cézanne and André Derain—as well as by the vitalist tendencies of German expressionism and particularly the Die Brücke group. Czech artists used this motif to familiarize themselves with the possibilities of cubism. The abstracted scene portrayed by the painting is composed of individual pictorial planes and combines figural elements with nature. A dramatic dimension is introduced by prominent contour lines oriented in various directions as well as by swift, dynamic brushstrokes which resemble wet-on-wet watercolor painting techniques. The linear, constructivist formalism of the painting stands in contrast to Špála’s typical fauvist use of color based on an interplay of blues and reds.
Václav Špála (1885, Žlutice u Nového Bydžov – 1946, Prague) was born into a humble rural household, and this environment permanently imbued his artistic practice with close relationship to nature and folklore. From 1903 to 1909, Špála studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague under Vlaho Bukovac and Franze Thiele. During his studies, he encountered many Czech and German-Jewish artists of his generation who would later become affiliated with the art group Osma. In 1909, Špála and a few other Osma members were accepted into the Mánes Union of Fine Arts. Špála’s interest in color and the sensory dimensions of painting was stirred by trips to Dalmatia in 1907 and 1909; he subsequently traveled to Paris in 1911, where he became further acquainted with the contemporary tendencies of the local art scene. Špála briefly joined the Group of Fine Artists, but disputes regarding the direction of cubism led him to leave the group in 1912, along with Josef Čapek. Together, they took part in the Mánes Union’s 1914 exhibition Modern Art, which presented a broad range of modernist ideas from the Parisian art scene as well as some works by Czech artists. Špála spent part of World War I, from 1915 to 1917, on the Hungarian front. Already in 1917, he held a solo exhibition at the Rubeš Gallery in Prague. During the post-war years, he became a member of the art group Tvrdošijní (1918–1923) and redeveloped his pre-war practice into a new synthesis of French modernism with local tradition. In the second half of the 1920s, Špála was one of the foremost figures of the Mánes Union of Fine Arts, where his sensuous vitalist style became synonymous with a celebration of life and its positive values. The Union organized extensive exhibitions of his work in 1925 and 1935, and in 1936 he was elected as its chairman. During the Frst Czechoslovak Republic, Špála was one of the foremost artists presenting contemporary Czechoslovak art abroad. Among the most significant of such exhibitions were the 1937 exhibitions of Czechoslovak art at the Galerie Jean Charpentier and the World Expo, both in Paris. In 1945, Špála was named a national artist. He died the following year, and a posthumous exhibition of his work was held the same year. The communist regime interpreted his work as symbolic of national values linked to folk culture and an immediate, optimistic relation to reality. A review of his art was presented by the 2005 retrospective exhibition Václav Špála: Between the Avantgarde and a Livelihood, taking place at the Waldstein Riding School of the National Gallery Prague and the Pražák Palace of the Moravian Gallery in Brno.
This painting titled Bathing (1915) is part of a larger thematic series depicting figures of rural women bathing. Špála approached the earlier of these paintings in as fauvist-expressionist renderings of reality as perceived, synthesizing influences of Renoir, Cézanne, Matisse, and Derain. However, from 1913 to 1915, the characteristic idyllic-instinctual tone of such works became disrupted by an analytical deconstruction of forms driven by the principles of cubism, which would displace the natural, primitivizing style of his previous work for some time. The motif of bathing was an important generational theme introduced by the influences of French art—such as Paul Cézanne and André Derain—as well as by the vitalist tendencies of German expressionism and particularly the Die Brücke group. Czech artists used this motif to familiarize themselves with the possibilities of cubism. The abstracted scene portrayed by the painting is composed of individual pictorial planes and combines figural elements with nature. A dramatic dimension is introduced by prominent contour lines oriented in various directions as well as by swift, dynamic brushstrokes which resemble wet-on-wet watercolor painting techniques. The linear, constructivist formalism of the painting stands in contrast to Špála’s typical fauvist use of color based on an interplay of blues and reds.
Václav Špála (1885, Žlutice u Nového Bydžov – 1946, Prague) was born into a humble rural household, and this environment permanently imbued his artistic practice with close relationship to nature and folklore. From 1903 to 1909, Špála studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague under Vlaho Bukovac and Franze Thiele. During his studies, he encountered many Czech and German-Jewish artists of his generation who would later become affiliated with the art group Osma. In 1909, Špála and a few other Osma members were accepted into the Mánes Union of Fine Arts. Špála’s interest in color and the sensory dimensions of painting was stirred by trips to Dalmatia in 1907 and 1909; he subsequently traveled to Paris in 1911, where he became further acquainted with the contemporary tendencies of the local art scene. Špála briefly joined the Group of Fine Artists, but disputes regarding the direction of cubism led him to leave the group in 1912, along with Josef Čapek. Together, they took part in the Mánes Union’s 1914 exhibition Modern Art, which presented a broad range of modernist ideas from the Parisian art scene as well as some works by Czech artists. Špála spent part of World War I, from 1915 to 1917, on the Hungarian front. Already in 1917, he held a solo exhibition at the Rubeš Gallery in Prague. During the post-war years, he became a member of the art group Tvrdošijní (1918–1923) and redeveloped his pre-war practice into a new synthesis of French modernism with local tradition. In the second half of the 1920s, Špála was one of the foremost figures of the Mánes Union of Fine Arts, where his sensuous vitalist style became synonymous with a celebration of life and its positive values. The Union organized extensive exhibitions of his work in 1925 and 1935, and in 1936 he was elected as its chairman. During the Frst Czechoslovak Republic, Špála was one of the foremost artists presenting contemporary Czechoslovak art abroad. Among the most significant of such exhibitions were the 1937 exhibitions of Czechoslovak art at the Galerie Jean Charpentier and the World Expo, both in Paris. In 1945, Špála was named a national artist. He died the following year, and a posthumous exhibition of his work was held the same year. The communist regime interpreted his work as symbolic of national values linked to folk culture and an immediate, optimistic relation to reality. A review of his art was presented by the 2005 retrospective exhibition Václav Špála: Between the Avantgarde and a Livelihood, taking place at the Waldstein Riding School of the National Gallery Prague and the Pražák Palace of the Moravian Gallery in Brno.
