Portraits,nudes and landscapes,but also Parisian streets or nightlife. Artists living in teh French capital after the First world War abandoned the avant-garde and returned to comprehensible forms or themes. At least those who are told by the new exhibition École de Paris – Artists from Bohemia and interwar Paris, which can be seen in Prague’s Valdštejnská jízdárna until March 2 next year.
The exhibition, evoking a view of interwar Paris through the eyes of an art lover, accentuates the work of three painters of Czech origin, Georges Kars, othon Coubin and francois Zdenko Eberle. The creators thay met are represented by the exhibited works of Amadeo Modigliani, Marc Chagall and Suzanne Valadon. An attractive addition, detailing the period’s bohemian nightlife, is a series of photographs by another foreigner living in Paris: the Romanian documentarian Brassaïe.
While kars and coubine – respectively Kubín, who “Frenchified” his name in Paris – are known in the Czech environment, Eberle will be a finding for the local audience. At the same time, his canvases depicting figures of Montmartre’s nightlife, such as prostitutes, thieves or drunkards sitting in cafes, seem to be the “most French”.
The featured trio had quite a bit of success in their time. The painters exhibited extensively in Paris and Prague, and contemporary critics also noticed and evaluated them. Curator Anna Pravdová traces their anchoring in France and the way they joined the École de Paris – the Parisian school, as the critic of the time called the artists creating the cosmopolitan scene there.
Her most famous form is represented at the beginning of the show by paintings by Marc Chagall and a rare loan from the Museum of Modern Art paris: Modigliani’s Woman with Blue Eyes. “We don’t have anything hear by Toyen, Josef Šíma or František Kupka. They moved in other circles,” says the curator,adding that she has now focused on underappreciated neoclassical painters.
Kars’ tragic fate
Their often figurative works do not represent a return to realism, as it seems at first glance. Real backdrops are not a pure imitation of what is seen. Kars, Coubine and Eberl stylized and reshaped their scenes. They were not looking for likability, but above all for authenticity. Lidové noviny correspondent, art critic Richard Weiner, wrote about Kars that he is “a painter of valiant displeasure”.
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Georges Kars arrived in Paris at the age of 26 in 1908, when he also married ballerina nora Berta Braun. The poet Guillaume Apollinaire was his witness and he also became friends with other Parisian artists. Painters Marc Chagall and Chaïm Soutine or critic André Salmon used to visit the Karses’ apartment in Montmartre. The Spaniard Juan Gris was sometimes accompanied by Pablo Picasso.
He remained in france until World War I, than enlisted as an officer in the enemy Austrian army. Similar to another Czech painter with Parisian experience, Bohumil Kubišta.however, his participation in the war on the “wrong side” later elaborate the acceptance of his work in the society of the young Czechoslovak state. After the war, Kars returned to Paris again, where he established himself well and maintained his reputation both there and at home.In 1931, he turned an offer from the Art Forum for a solo exhibition in Prague’s Municipal house into a large exhibition of Parisian art also called École de Paris.
Six years later, the Society of visual Artists Mánes prepared a separate collective exhibition for Kars, which was also visited by the president Edvard Beneš.
The painter, who changed his name from Jiří to Georges in the cosmopolitan environment of Paris, was also a welcome link for manny Czech visitors eager to get to know the Parisian atmosphere.
On the left is the face of Fandango by Georges Karsa dated 1935. | Photo: ČTK
From 1933 he started going to Spain for the summer, where he bought a house in the seaside Tossa de Mar. He was warmly received by the locals, according to the curator, a now defunct establishment in Tossa was called Bar Kars. However, he had to flee the seaside town in a hurry before the civil war in 1936. He captured the traumatic experience in an overcrowded painting called Iconoclasm, in which a wild crowd loots a church.
The Spanish Revolution forced Kars, who was of Jewish origin, to make the first of a series of escapes. Then, when Nazi troops occupied France during the Second World War, he first had to leave Paris and flee to Lyon, after which he fled to Switzerland, where he dramatically waded across the Doubs River.
Crossing a deep ice stream almost ended in tragedy. Kars accompanied sculptor Chana Orloff and her young son. He started drowning in the river and Kars saved his life. All three survived. Kars subsequently left for his sister in Geneva, but did not live to see the end of the war. Under the influence of terrible documents about the Holocaust, the nervously fatigued artist took his own life by jumping from a hotel window.
The exhibition in Prague’s Valdštejnská jízdárna will last until March 2 next year.| Photo: Adéla Kremplová
Model and painter
However, the exhibition also deals with idyllic Parisian times. Close friends of Georges Kars also included the three artists Suzanne Valadon, her son Maurice Utrillo and her husband André Utter, who was three years younger than Utrillo.
She was also liked by Edgar Degas, who supported her in his own work. It was also thanks to him that Suzanne Valadon developed into a recognized artist.That’s how the Karses got to know her – she captured the painter’s wife in one of her paintings. The closeness of their relationship is also evidenced by the drawing, when Kars, on the other hand, immortalized her on his deathbed.
The self-confident self-portrait of Suzanne Valadon is one of the most striking works of the Prague exhibition. A stunning woman with distinctive features looks down from the painting, one would hardly guess that the author painted it at the age of sixty-two.The piece, borrowed from a French collection, combines her two “professions” – models and painters – in a fascinating and at the same time very simple way.
Georges Kars became close friends with the painter Utrillo, as evidenced by Utrillo’s portraits made by Kars and, such as, a naïve winter picture with Kars’s birthplace in kralupy nad Vltavou, which Utrillo painted for a friend based on a postcard.It was urban landscapes created from postcards, most frequently enough Montmartre, that made Utrillo famous.
The exhibition also pays attention to gallerist Berthe Weill, the first woman to open a gallery under her own name. It exhibited contemporary artists,among the first to give space to Picasso and henri Mattis.Amadeo Modigliani’s only exhibition during his lifetime also took place at the Berthe Weill Gallery. Of the Czech artists working in Paris, Kars, Coubine and Eberl were included in its program. Exhibitions changed quickly, usually lasting only 2 weeks.
The exhibition in the Valdštejnská jízdárna was prepared by curator Anna Pravdová. | Photo: Adéla Kremplová
A mild dose of primitivism
Otakar Kubín settled in Paris with his wife Blažena shortly after his marriage in 1912. He changed his name to Othon Coubine and after the First World War, during which he spent part of his time in a French internment camp as a citizen of an enemy power, he also radically changed his artistic expression.He abandoned cubist-expressive painting, muted the sharp colors, the figures composed of angular shapes acquired a realistic dimension. He started painting landscapes filled with people, later only empty natural scenery. He based his expression on simplification and subtle stylization.
Contemporary critics compared his work to the work of the naïve Henri Rousseau. After seeing coubin’s exhibition organized by the Mánes Association in Prague in 1923,josef Čapek wrote: “A slight and never tasteless dose of primitivism gives the works created from this attunement of the eye and spirit a certain modern piquancy and appeal.”
The current exhibition in Prague shows Coubin’s “genre” female figures such as a lacemaker,a seamstress,a countrywoman,a mother with a child. However, significantly more paintings are made up of his landscapes, which made the famous collector and art critic Leo Stein want to buy art again.
In 1926, however, he saw Coubin’s landscapes and began collecting again, especially the works of the Czech-French artist, whom he appreciated for his civility and the strength of his artistic vision. “Where some see primarily descriptive painting, others effortlessly discover the features characteristic of masterpieces,” wrote Leo Stein.According to him, Coubine’s neoclassical works were in contrast to the avant-garde, which Stein had stopped admiring: “Coubine has a classical sense of objectivity. he hates exaggeration,from which many derive their effects.”
The collector even contractually agreed to send the painter a decent appanage every other month, for which he claimed half of his production. He soon amassed a rich collection of Coubin’s paintings, mainly landscapes. One part of the Valdštejnská jízdárna has been transformed into a “collector’s lounge”, the canvases are hung on the wall side by side. A large part of these paintings, borrowed from a private collection, has its exhibition premiere in the Czech Republic.
The end of the show belongs to the almost forgotten, at the same time, popular painter Francois Zdenko Eberle. He was attracted to Paris at night, the staff of bars, cafes and pubs. He painted self-indulgent couples at pub dances, scenes from hotel bars, prostitutes and their pimps, guys in jeans with a cigarette in the corner of their mouth.
Eberle’s paintings are very action-oriented, the characters have Modigliani’s empty dark eyes. The painter was convinced that the eyes cancel the expression of the face and at the same time do not contribute to the resemblance to the model.
Together with Eberl, the images of the Romanian photographer Gyula Halász, who called himself Brassaï. He moved simultaneously occurring along the same routes as Eberl.He was made famous by the set published in 1933 in the book Night Paris. As the curator of the exhibition, Anna Pravdová, points out, Brassaï’s and Eberl’s view of the Parisian underclass was not socially critical, but rather amiable, sympathetic, even admiring of “what pride they were able to maintain despite the conditions in which they lived”.
The documentary subtext of the École de Paris exhibition reinforces the catalog providing an overview of the “art colony” in Montmartre in the interwar period. The show in the Valdštejnská jízdárna is attractive and revealing at the same time. It lets you experience the atmosphere of the former center of European art. The light sentiment of bygone times competes with the discovery that, alongside the avant-garde, other independent art flourished in the same place, which is worth getting to know.
What are the key influences of primitivism on Ted’s artistic style?
Ted to embrace a softer, more naturalistic style that incorporated influences from primitivism.His works reflected a growing interest in simplicity and a connection to more organic forms of expression, which resonated with the evolving artistic landscape of the time.
Coubine’s change in his artistic expression can be traced through his works, which increasingly featured landscapes and scenes infused with a sense of warmth and community. After the war, he became part of a broader movement that sought to break away from the rigid formalism of earlier art movements, favoring a style that evoked emotional and spiritual connections to the subjects he depicted.
Both Kars and Coubine navigated the complex and ever-changing art world of Paris, forming relationships with influential figures and confronting the challenges posed by their backgrounds and the tumultuous events of their time. Their experiences highlight the rich tapestry of cultural exchange and personal struggle that characterized the lives of many artists during this era.
The exhibition at Valdštejnská jízdárna is significant not only for showcasing the works of kars and his contemporaries but also for providing insight into the vibrant artistic community that flourished in Paris before the disruptions of World War II. This period was marked by an intersection of diverse styles,expressions,and friendships that would leave a lasting impact on the trajectory of modern art. Visitors to the exhibition have the opportunity to delve into this fascinating history and appreciate the nuances of Kars’s contributions alongside those of his peers, reflecting a broader narrative of resilience and creativity in the face of adversity.