Emil Filla
Three Graces (Three Women)
Artist
Emil Filla
(1882, Chropyně - 1953, Praha), Czech
Original Title
Three Graces (Three Women)
Date1937
Mediumoil on canvas
Dimensions 146 × 114 cm
Classificationspaintings
Credit LineKunsthalle Praha
DescriptionEmil Filla is one of the most important figures of Czech modernism. He spent his life developing cubist principles, which he synthesized with a knowledge of both older art and contemporary tendencies. The possibility of manifesting individual artistic freedom was an essential value for Filla. His modernist inclinations were first awakened by the 1905 Prague exhibition of Norwegian painter Edvard Munch. In his early expressionist period, Filla typically combined a wide range of influences. Apart from Edvard Munch, some of his most significant inspirations include Honoré Daumier, Pierre Bonnard, Rembrandt and El Greco. Filla’s engagement with their work during this period is evidenced by a soft morphology, an emphasis on color and its sensorily liberated application and morphological function, as well as an exaltation of expression. His encounter with the pre-cubist paintings of Picasso, Braque, and Derain subsequently influenced his move toward primitivist painting in the form of figurative canvases with religious motifs. Their expressiveness and emphasis on a spiritual dimension convey strongly metaphorical content linked to his idealistic view of the role of new art in social transformation. From 1912 onward, Filla’s work became closely aligned with the repertoire and morphology of Picasso’s cubism, which he considered a timeless lens for viewing reality. He was the only Czech artist to engage with all the evolutionary phases of Picasso’s and Braque’s cubism. However, he did not approach their evolution chronologically, and the message conveyed by his cubism was also fundamentally different. Unlike Picasso’s anti-painterly and spontaneous dadaist gestures, Filla sought a more sensorily painterly and simultaneously more scientifically grounded outcome prioritizing a conceptual, spiritual dimension. Filla’s Dutch period, between 1914 and 1920, which combines elements of analytical and synthetic cubism with influences from Dutch 17th century art, is generally considered the pinnacle of his cubism. Typical of his work from the 1920s, following a return to the newly established Czechoslovakia, were large still lifes in a synthetically cubist style, marked by a richer color palette and more cultivated of painterly techniques. The sensory dimension was further amplified in the latter half of the 1920s, influenced by the general inclination toward painterly vitalism. An important element of Filla’s practice in the 1930s were sensorily conceived figural canvases with deformed morphologies inspired by primitivism. Given their possibilities of associative interpretation, these works also shared an affinity with surrealism. In 1936, Filla began working on the allegorical cycle Battles and Figths, inspired by classical mythology, which conveyed his concern with the contemporary state of affairs in Europe. Simultaneously, he also worked on the cycle Songs, inspired by Czech and Slovak folksongs, and containing a subtext of nostalgia and of the tragedy of its protagonists. The hybrid, almost postmodern style of the subsequent cycle Songs II (1946–1950), based on Slovak folksongs, demonstrates Filla’s familiarity with late cubism and influences of Chinese ink painting and the work of Mikoláš Aleš. This cycle also contains elements of folk and slapstick humor, which helped him cope with heavy experiences during the war. His last cycle, Central Bohemian Highlands (1947–1952), focuses on landscapes and can be understood as reflecting an encounter with the landscape and its spiritual dimension.
This painting titled Three Graces, sometimes also referred to as Three Women, dates from 1937, when Filla was deeply interested in classical mythology. Much as other contemporary artists, he turned to mythology in reaction to the tense atmosphere of the time, linked to the growing threat of Nazi Germany. The motif of the three graces is a classical mythological theme which can be understood as a reflection of humanistic understandings of love; simultaneously, it spotlights the motif of Dionysian dance which awakens the animalistic instincts of humans. This mutual fusion of sexual and spiritual dimensions is characteristic of Filla’s figurative work from the 1930s, when his practice was stylistically aligned with the young generation of Czech surrealists. His spontaneous painterly style, as well as the bodily deformations of female nudes, imbue the paintings with an expressive, dramatic quality; it also demonstrates Filla’s inspiration in primitivism, which helped him thematize identity as situated on the boundary of the human and the animalistic, reflecting his concerns with the loss of European humanistic values.
Emil Filla (1882, Chropyně – 1953, Prague) studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague from 1903 to 1906. In 1906, he traveled to study in Germany, the Netherlands, and Paris. He stayed in Paris several times between 1909 and 1914, becoming acquainted with both modern and older art and studying specialized literature. From 1907 to 1908, Filla was a member of the art group Osma, which brought together the young generations of Czech and German-Jewish artists. Between 1909 and 1911, he was a member of the Mánes Union of Fine Arts, but a generational divide within the group led to the 1911 founding of the Group of Fine Artists, in which Filla belonged to the orthodox cubist division following in the footsteps of Picasso and Braque. In the years before World War I, Filla and his colleagues developed close ties with German gallery owners and partook in internationally oriented projects presenting the most cutting-edge avantgarde tendencies; examples of such events include the 1912 Sonderbund group exhibition in Cologne and the 1913 First German Autumn Salon at the Der Sturm gallery in Berlin. From 1914 to 1920, Filla lived in the Netherlands, a neutral territory during the war. Alongside painting, he spent this time studying and partaking in the Czech resistance movement. In 1920, he rejoined the Mánes Union of Fine Artists and became one of the most prominent figures of Czech art both domestically and abroad. In 1932, his work was extensively featured in the exhibition Poesie 1932, which marked the beginnings of surrealism in Czech art. On the first day of World War II, Filla was transported to the Buchenwald concentration camp. Upon his return home in 1945, he was appointed as professor of monumental painting at the Academy of Arts, Architecture, and Design in Prague. He had solo exhibitions in 1945 and 1947; later, he was only allowed to exhibit his paintings of the Central Bohemian Highlands, which the socialist rhetoric of the time inaccurately described as Filla’s first step toward socialist realism. A rediscovery of his cubist work only began to take place in the 1950s. A more comprehensive review of Filla’s unique contribution to Czech modernist painting was only achieved in exhibitions after the year 2000, such as: Scream, Mouth! Preconditions of Expressionism, Prague City Gallery – Municipal Library, Prague, 2006–2007; Quarrels of Maturity: Facets of modernity at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, 1890–1918, Gallery of Fine Arts in Ostrava, 2008; Rembrandt’s Tram: Cubism, Tradition, and “Different” Art, Gallery of Western Bohemia in Pilsen, 2015; The Man with a Burning Mane: Emil Filla and Surrealism 1931–1939, Museum Kampa, Prague, 2017; Years of Disarray 1908–1928: Avantgardes in Central Europe, Olomouc Museum of Art, 2018; Kubišta–Filla: A Pilsen Disputation, Gallery of Western Bohemia in Pilsen, Meat Market Exhibition Hall, Pilsen, 2019. His works are held in every important public collection in the Czech Republic, as well as in the collections of Kunstmuseum Bochum, Kunstmuseum Bern, and the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris.
This painting titled Three Graces, sometimes also referred to as Three Women, dates from 1937, when Filla was deeply interested in classical mythology. Much as other contemporary artists, he turned to mythology in reaction to the tense atmosphere of the time, linked to the growing threat of Nazi Germany. The motif of the three graces is a classical mythological theme which can be understood as a reflection of humanistic understandings of love; simultaneously, it spotlights the motif of Dionysian dance which awakens the animalistic instincts of humans. This mutual fusion of sexual and spiritual dimensions is characteristic of Filla’s figurative work from the 1930s, when his practice was stylistically aligned with the young generation of Czech surrealists. His spontaneous painterly style, as well as the bodily deformations of female nudes, imbue the paintings with an expressive, dramatic quality; it also demonstrates Filla’s inspiration in primitivism, which helped him thematize identity as situated on the boundary of the human and the animalistic, reflecting his concerns with the loss of European humanistic values.
Emil Filla (1882, Chropyně – 1953, Prague) studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague from 1903 to 1906. In 1906, he traveled to study in Germany, the Netherlands, and Paris. He stayed in Paris several times between 1909 and 1914, becoming acquainted with both modern and older art and studying specialized literature. From 1907 to 1908, Filla was a member of the art group Osma, which brought together the young generations of Czech and German-Jewish artists. Between 1909 and 1911, he was a member of the Mánes Union of Fine Arts, but a generational divide within the group led to the 1911 founding of the Group of Fine Artists, in which Filla belonged to the orthodox cubist division following in the footsteps of Picasso and Braque. In the years before World War I, Filla and his colleagues developed close ties with German gallery owners and partook in internationally oriented projects presenting the most cutting-edge avantgarde tendencies; examples of such events include the 1912 Sonderbund group exhibition in Cologne and the 1913 First German Autumn Salon at the Der Sturm gallery in Berlin. From 1914 to 1920, Filla lived in the Netherlands, a neutral territory during the war. Alongside painting, he spent this time studying and partaking in the Czech resistance movement. In 1920, he rejoined the Mánes Union of Fine Artists and became one of the most prominent figures of Czech art both domestically and abroad. In 1932, his work was extensively featured in the exhibition Poesie 1932, which marked the beginnings of surrealism in Czech art. On the first day of World War II, Filla was transported to the Buchenwald concentration camp. Upon his return home in 1945, he was appointed as professor of monumental painting at the Academy of Arts, Architecture, and Design in Prague. He had solo exhibitions in 1945 and 1947; later, he was only allowed to exhibit his paintings of the Central Bohemian Highlands, which the socialist rhetoric of the time inaccurately described as Filla’s first step toward socialist realism. A rediscovery of his cubist work only began to take place in the 1950s. A more comprehensive review of Filla’s unique contribution to Czech modernist painting was only achieved in exhibitions after the year 2000, such as: Scream, Mouth! Preconditions of Expressionism, Prague City Gallery – Municipal Library, Prague, 2006–2007; Quarrels of Maturity: Facets of modernity at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, 1890–1918, Gallery of Fine Arts in Ostrava, 2008; Rembrandt’s Tram: Cubism, Tradition, and “Different” Art, Gallery of Western Bohemia in Pilsen, 2015; The Man with a Burning Mane: Emil Filla and Surrealism 1931–1939, Museum Kampa, Prague, 2017; Years of Disarray 1908–1928: Avantgardes in Central Europe, Olomouc Museum of Art, 2018; Kubišta–Filla: A Pilsen Disputation, Gallery of Western Bohemia in Pilsen, Meat Market Exhibition Hall, Pilsen, 2019. His works are held in every important public collection in the Czech Republic, as well as in the collections of Kunstmuseum Bochum, Kunstmuseum Bern, and the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris.
