Czechoslovak Contemporary Art

by Hendrik Willem van Loon

CZECHOSLOVAK
CONTEMPORARY ART

 

Czechoslovak Relief

DEMOTTE GALLERIES, INC.
NEW YORK, N. Y.

February 25th to March 12th, 1942

CZECHOSLOVAK
CONTEMPORARY ART

(For the benefit of Czechoslovak Relief)

 

DEMOTTE GALLERIES, INC.
39 EAST 51st STREET
NEW YORK, N. Y.

This Exhibit is Under the Auspices of
COLONEL VLADIMIR S. HURBAN
Czechoslovak Minister to the United States

 

Honorary Committee

MRS. FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT
GOVERNOR HERBERT H. LEHMAN
MAYOR FIORELLO H. LAGUARDIA
DR. WILLIAM JAY SCHIEFFELIN
President of American Friends of Czechoslovakia

MRS. EDWARD C. CARTER MRS. ARTHUR OSGOOD CHOATE MISS MABEL CHOATE MRS. WILLIAM PENN CRESSON MRS. RUSSELL W. DAVENPORT DR. EDGAR J. FISHER MRS. GEORGE FOOTE MRS. JOHN W. FROTHINGHAM MRS. JOHN GREGOR Mr. & MRS. JOHN GREGORY MISS MARION HAGUE MRS. ALFRED HOFFMAN	MRS. JAMES LEES LAIDLAW HENRY SMITH LEIPER MME JARMILA NOVOTNA MRS. EDGERTON PARSONS MRS. WILLIAM R. POPPER MRS. OGDEN REID MRS. WILLIAM JAY SCHIEFFELIN MISS ANN SMITH MRS. LYMAN BEECHER STOWE MRS. ARTHUR HAYS SULZBERGER MRS. ARTHUR W. THOMAS MRS. JINDRICH WALDES
MRS. JAMES ROWLAND ANGELL

 

Czechoslovak Relief, Chicago, Ill.

PROF. J. KUCHYNKAChairman

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JULIUS HEGERExecutive Secretary

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New York Chapter of Czechoslovak Relief

MRS MARIA ISSACKSChairman

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MRS. T. HEJLVice-Chairman

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MRS. ANNA NOCHTAVice-Chairman

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We wish to express our sincere thanks to the following ladies and gentlemen for lending us their pictures and sculptures:
MRS VIOLA W. FANTA MR. J. B. Neumann MR. PAVEL H. SMOLKA	MR. MAURICE STONE MR. PAVEL ULMAN DR. AND MRS. J. A. WINN
MR. HUGO POPPY

 

Selection and Arrangement of the Exhibit
DR. HUGO FEIGL

In every country there are certain relics, carefully preserved and shown only on very special occasions, which are held in great veneration because they are the living evidence of that nation's intention to survive in spite of everything. They may be a final message of some small group of patriots telling those who will find their remains that the men and women who lie buried among the ruins died faithful to their trust. Or again they may be a bit of broken pottery, dug out of the shambles of a castle or a city which preferred destruction to surrender. Or the last remnant of a flag that was flown when all had been lost except honor and the loyal devotion to a lost cause.

But there are other evidences of the national will to live which I have nothing to do with an actual clash of arms, yet are as powerful in their testimony to a people's valor and tenacity as the guns that fired the last shot in the struggle for freedom. I refer to those evidences of the national genius which took the shape of paintings, of pieces of sculpture, of musical and literary compositions and which belonging to the realm of the spirit were as indestructable as the laws of God and of nature.

The ancient land of the Czechs, betrayed by those who should have been its friends and protectors, today lies at the mercy of an enemy who for sheer brutality and lust for cruelty has never been quite surpassed within the written annals of history. Death stalks through those streets which were the first to hear the merry strains of Mozart's operas. The melodies arising from the banks of the Vltava river are silenced by the raucous shouts of bands of youthful gangsters, loudly singing the praises of the late and unlamented Horst Wessel, and the silences of the forest calms are broken by the angry staccato of shooting squads, going about their hideous business of exterminating all those who dared question the greatness of the Aryan race as it has revealed itself in the ungainly person of Adolf, son of Alois Schickelgruber, its most conspicuous prophet and illustrious Messiah.

This is a gloomy picture and hardly the sort of thing we like to see printed in our blessed land of wishful thinking in which Candide, amidst the bombs of Pearl Harbor and the flames of the Normandie can still proclaim that all is for the best in the best of all possible worlds if one only closes one's eyes against those facts which might have a disturbing effect upon that equanimity of the soul necessary for the enjoyment of a good meal and a pleasant evening at a night club.

I am writing this however for my good friends, the Czechoslovaks. They will understand, for they have gone through a different kind of schooling. Misfortune has been their constant companion and adversity has been their faithful teacher. They realize that they will never get anything except what they shall be able to acquire by the sweat of their own brow. They do not expect that liberty will come to them neatly done up in a little bundle and with the compliments of a few well-intentioned citizens in a foreign land. They know that freedom without which their nation cannot live, will have to be the result of their own endeavors and having learned from the experience of the past, they understand that the soul of a people is not expressed by vital statistics concerning its balance of trade but that it lies hidden where no one can touch it—in the soul of its artists and writers and philosophers.

The world has long since known about the glories of Czech music. Just as two hundred years ago the name Bach came to stand for that of a musician, so the very word Bohemian had long since become identified with excellence in composition or in the handling of a bow or a pair of vocal cords. And if anyone doubts the good right of the Czech people to learn their language at the knees of their mothers, he only need open his ears. The composers of the old land of Bohemia will tell him so, and in terms that cannot possibly be mistaken.

It had been somewhat different within the realm of the pictorical arts. We were familiar with a few names, but with only a few. For the painter cannot spread his fame as easily as the composer or the singer or the fiddler. A Dvorak or a Smetana can be heard in a thousand different places on one and the same evening. A painter, working for the here and now can only display his genius in a single spot. A private collector may be the proud possessor of one of two Kokoschka's or Stursa's or Maratka's, but no matter how generous he may be in sharing his treasures with his neighbors, only a handful of people at a time can enjoy the sight of these products of the brush and the pencil.

It therefore seems not only a wise but an absolutely necessary decision to bring together into one single space as many of the evidences of the Czech genius for painting as could be found in that rapidly dwindling part of the world as yet unaffected by the defiling touch of the Nazi hand. In the meanwhile, everylthing that can be done should be done, to keep their holy cause before the public at large. For this time, peace will not be entrusted to the sort of men who gave us Versailles. By the time we have gained our victory, the bungling representatives of a bygone system will be raising eggs and will be keeping bees in the porter's lodge of their former country estates. While men and women who really understand the world in which they live will decide upon the fate of a new commonwealth of nations. Admission to this organization will not be based exclusively upon the export of scrap-iron and the number of shoes a single factory can turn out within a single day. The so-called imponderabilia—the non-essentials, so infinitely more important than the essentials, will weigh heavily when the claims of this nation to an independent existence of its own are brought to the attention of the civilized part of mankind.

We already know what the Czechoslovaks could do within the realm of science and of social improvement. We had long since accepted them as among the foremost of our musical benefactors and within these walls the visitor can now make up his mind as to their demand that within the realm of the pictorial arts too, they stand foremost among those who have been striving after an independant and original approach towards the age-old problem of seeing nature through a new and original temperament.

And that is all I have to say upon the subject that brings you here today.

I am among those who have always maintained that art should be "sensed" through the eye or the ear and not through the printed word of a literary commentator. Therefore go into these rooms, most welcome visitor, see for yourself and then make up your mind whether you agree with me that this nation, through its painters just as much as through its other men of genius is entitled to work out its own salvation and to reappear once again and more gloriously then ever before as a
Country free and independent!

HENDRIK WILLEM VAN LOON

PAINTINGS AND DRAWINGS
ALEN DIVIS
1.	MARTINIQUE. GOUACHE. 1941
2.	AFRICAN DESERT. GOUACHE. 1941
BEDRICH FEIGL
3.	RAGUSA. OIL PAINTING. 1913
4.	BAY. OIL PAINTING. 1912
ADOLF HOFFMEISTER
6.	VARIATIONS ON JAPANESE FLAG. PENDRAWING. 1942
7.	WANDERING SEAMAN. PENDRAWING. 1942
8.	LISABON. PENDRAWING. 1942
ALFRED JUSTITZ
9.	POPPY SEEDS. OIL PAINTING. 1925
JIRI KARS
10.	MARIANSKE NAMESTI, (SQUARE) IN PRAGUE. OIL PAINTING. 1908
MILOSLAV KINCNER
11.	WINTER IN CONNECTICUT. OIL PAINTING. 1941
OSKAR KOKOSCHKA
12.	PORTRAIT OF T. G. MASARYK. OIL PAINTING. 1936
13.	PRAGUE. OIL PAINTING. 1935
14.	PRAGUE. OIL PAINTING. 1938
RUDOLF KREMLICKA
15.	LANDSCAPE. OIL PAINTING. 1926
16.	LANDSCAPE. OIL PAINTING. 1930
17.	PORTRAIT OF A CHILD. OIL PAINTING. 1916
OTAKAR KUBIN (Coubine)
18.	WILD FLOWERS. OIL PAINTING. 1833
19.	LANDSCAPE. OIL PAINTING. 1933
20.	LANDSCAPE. OIL PAINTING. 1931
JOSEPH LENHARD
21.	EAST RIVER. WATER COLOR. 1941
22.	WINTER. OIL PAINTING. 1942
MARY LORENC
23.	STILL LIFE. OIL PAINTING. 1941
24.	STILL LIFE. OIL PAINTING. 1941
JAN MATULKA
25.	BAY WITH LIGHTHOUSE. OIL PAINTING. 1941
26.	CASSIS IN FRANCE. OIL PAINTING. 1931
JOSEF MINARIK
27.	ARTIST'S BIRTHPLACE IN PRAGUE. OIL PAINTING. 1908
28.	ST. JACOB'S STREET, PRAGUE. OIL PAINTING. 1909
29.	OLD MILLS IN PRAGUE. OIL PAINTING. 1909
MIA MUNZER
30.	NEW ENGLAND. OIL PAINTING. 1941
VRATISLAV NECHLEBA
31.	PORTRAIT. OIL PAINTING. 1913
ANTONIN T. PEEL
32.	YOUNG ARAB WOMAN. GOUACHE. 1941
33.	ARABS WITH COCKS. GOUACHE. 1941
34.	SENEGALS AND ARAB WOMEN. GONACHE. 1941
JAN PREISLER
35.	YOUNG GIRL. OIL PAINTING. 1898/1900
A. ROSKOTOVA
36.	PRAGUE. WATER COLOR. 1939
RICHARD RYCHTARIK
37.	MAGIC FLUTE. (Two designs for the Metropolitan Opera, New York) PASTEL. 1941
38.	PAMINE (Magic Flute). PASTEL. 1941
VOJTECH SEDLACEK
39.	PORTRAIT OF MR. J. PEN DRAWING. 1934
40.	LANDSCAPE WITH HORSES. PEN DRAWING. 1936
KOLOMAN SOKOL
41.	PARALYTIC. ETCHING. 1941
42.	REVOLUTIONARES. WOODCUT. 1941
43.	PEOPLE IN PEACE. WOODCUT. 1941
44.	COMPOSITION. CHARCOAL WITH OIL. 1942
IVAN SORS
45.	YOUNG FISHERMAN WITH CHILD. WATER COLOR. 1941
46.	YOUNG GIRL. WATER COLOR. 1941
VACLAV SPALA
47.	MARSEILLE. OIL PAINTING. 1925
48.	LANDSCAPE. OIL PAINTING. 1925
VACLAV VYTLACIL
49.	TABLE WITH FRUITS. TEMPERA. 1941
50.	FRUIT BASKET. TEMPERA. 1941
51.	TWO FIGURES. GOUACHE. 1940
SCULPTURES
MARIO KORBEL
52.	ST. THERESE DE LISIEUX. (WOOD). 1930
53.	NIGHT. (BRONZE). 1921
54.	THE KISS. (BRONZE). 1940
55.	VANITY. (BRONZE). 1918
56.	MODESTY. (BRONZE). 1918
57.	NUDE. (SILVER). 1921
58.	DANCER. (SILVER). 1934
59.	ANGELUS. (SILVER). 1941
60.	CHRISTUS VICTORIOUS. (SILVER). 1941
61.	MOTHERHOOD. (SILVER). 1920
62.	ATALANTA. (BRONZE). 1934
63.	LANATA. (BRONZE). 1933
JOSEF MARATKA
64.	HEAD. (BRONZE).
65.	DANCER—O. W. GZOVSKA. (CLAY). 1914
66.	EVE. (PLASTER).
ALBIN G. POLASEK
67.	M. R. STEFANIK. (PLASTER)
68.	HERO OF BLANIK. (CLAY)
69.	FIGURE. (CLAY)
JAN STURSA
70.	GIFT OF HEAVEN. (BRONZE)
71.	SULAMIT RAHU. (BRONZE). 1907–1910
72.	LEGIONARE'S HEAD. (BRONZE). 1909
73.	WOMAN COMBING HER HAIR. (MARBLE). 1903
74.	LEANING GIRL. (BRONZE). 1914
75.	TWO PEN DRAWINGS
KAREL DVORAK
76.	THE KISS. (POETRY)
ANTONIN HEYTHUM
77.	CZECHOSLOVAK EXHIBIT—NEW YORK WORLD'S FAIR. PHOTOGRAPH. 1940
78.	INTERIOR OF A STUDIO IN PASADENA, CALIFORNIA. PHOTOGRAPH. 1940
79.	CZECHOSLOVAK EXHIBIT—GOLDEN GATE EXPOSITION, SAN FRANCISCO, CAL. TWO PHOTOGRAPHS. 1939.
ADDENDA
VLASTIMIL RADA
80.	LANDSCAPE IN WINTER. OIL PAINTING
VOJTECH SEDLACEK
81.	POTATO HARVEST. OIL PAINTING
82–92.	TEN DRAWINGS.
VOJTECH SEDLACEK
93.	ANGEL. CHARCOAL DRAWING
94.	SPRING. CHARCOAL DRAWING
95.	DAWNING. CHARCOAL DRAWING

No. 19
LANDSCAPE. By OTAKAR KUBIN

 

No. 16
LANDSCAPE. By RUDOLF KREMLICKA

 

No. 12
PORTRAIT OF T. G. MASARYK. By OSKAR KOKOSCHKA

 

No. 51
TWO FIGURES. By VACLAV VYTLACIL

 

No. 22
WINTER. By JOSEPH LENHARD

 

No. 26
CASSIS IN FRANCE. By JAN MATULKA

 

No. 6
VARIATIONS OF JAPANESE FLAG. By ADOLF HOFFMEISTER

 

No. 32
YOUNG ARAB WOMAN. By ANTONIN T. PEEL

 

No. 70
GIFT OF HEAVEN. By JAN STURSA

 

THE ALEXANDER PRESS
114–116 WEST 27th STREET