PRESS RELEASE
LUDVÍK KUBA – THE LAST IMPRESSIONIST
The exhibition was prepared by the Collection of 19th-Century Art
of the National Gallery in Prague.
Exhibition author and curator: Veronika Hulíková
Architectonic solution: SGL Projekt: Jiří Javůrek, Silvie Bednaříková
Graphic design: Štěpán Malovec
Accompanying programme: Department of Education, Collection of 19th-Century Art, the
National Gallery in Prague
The exhibition runs from 29 November 2013 to 6 April 2014
in the Salma Palace of the National Gallery in Prague,
Hradschin Square 2, Prague 1.
The Collection of 19th-Century Art of the National Gallery in Prague organized a retrospective
exhibition of the artist Ludvík Kuba to celebrate the 150th anniversary of his birth. The aim of
the project is to commemorate the hitherto somewhat neglected significant figure of Czech
artistic scene. Kuba’s oeuvre is remarkably extensive and the more imposing if we add to it
Kuba’s ample activities in ethnography, writing and collecting of Chinese art. Nevertheless, it
has been so far rather omitted − mentioned only marginally or even missing − in the overviews
of Czech art history of the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. The latest exhibition devoted to
the artist was held by the National Gallery in 1968 and his most recent monograph dates as far
back as to 1946. There might be several reasons for neglecting Kuba within the context of the
given period. One of them is the fact that the painter between 1893 and 1911 developed
outside the main tendencies of Czech art and was a solitary figure even after returning to his
homeland. Another reason that has obstructed any closer access to Kuba is that his numerous
works are dispersed throughout many gallery, museum and private collections. It is impossible
to compile any Kuba’s representative exhibition from the drawings and paintings held in either
state or regional collections because his fundamental works are parts of private collections. The
present exhibition, organized thanks to numerous private collectors and mainly thanks to the
helpful approach of Ludvík Kuba’s family, is a cross-section through his works from the late 19th
century to the 1950s, including paintings and drawings which have never been publicly
displayed.
Kuba’s date of birth suggests that he was only a little older contemporary of Luděk Marold
(1865−1898), Karel Vítězslav Mašek (1865−1927) and Jan František Gretsch (1866−1894) –
painters who entered the artistic scene only in the latter half of the 1890s. Kuba did so
belatedly, a decade later, along with the artists born during the 1870s (e.g., Jan Preisler,
Antonín Slavíček and Miloš Jiránek). His road to becoming an artist was long and complicated.
His interest in folk songs eventually diverted him from the career of being a village
schoolteacher. In 1884, Kuba began publishing the monumental collection of folk songs,
entitled The Slavs in Their Songs, and often journeyed to Sorbia, the Balkans and Sub-
Carpathian Ukraine for this purpose. His travelling journals, later published in book form, were
naturally accompanied by minute pencil watercolour sketches of landscapes and their
inhabitants. He received his first artistic training via private studies with the landscape painter
Karel Liebscher and also briefly studied in the studio of Max Pirner at the Prague Academy in
the early 1890s. Problems with financing the comprehensive melographic Slavs made Kuba
radically change his life. The thirty-year old artist decided to pursue painting exclusively and
left for Paris to attend the private Académie Julian between 1893 and 1895. The most beneficial
output of the two-year Paris sojourn, however, was Kubaʼs immediate introduction to the works
by the Impressionists.
The fundamental period for Kubaʼs career was his sojourn to Munich between 1896 and 1904,
where he studied at the private school of the Slovenian painter and teacher of painting, Anton
Ažbe. The main source of inspiration for him there became his colleagues – the local group of
Russian artists headed by Wassily Kandinsky and Alexej Jawlensky. The Munich artistic scene at
that time was eventful and restless and Kuba, naturally, also eagerly absorbed influences from
outside the school studio. Among them were the exhibitions of the recently established Munich
Secession which regularly presented the German Impressionists, Fritz von Uhde, Lovis Corinth
and Max Liebermann. All this triggered an essential change in Kuba’s art, bringing relaxed
brushwork sometimes on the verge of almost expressive rendering and colour solution of a
painting as the main artistic issue. Kuba then moved from Munich to Vienna where he
successfully incorporated himself into the local artistic scene. He became the representative and
secretary of the local art association Hagenbund and regularly participated in its exhibitions. He
would also spend the summer months in Březnice near Příbram at his wife’s parents where his
main source of inspiration was the garden of their little house. And it was in these canvases
featuring vistas into these greeneries and garden nooks as well as in the intimate family scenes
from the Viennese flat where Kuba fully developed his distinctive Impressionist brushwork.
Kuba returned to live in Prague in 1911. After the Great War, he again began working on the
collection of Slavic songs, travelling to Macedonia, Serbia, Sub-Carpathian Ukraine and Sorbia
for that purpose between 1922 and 1929. He did not bring back only songs but also his own oil
paintings from the second journey. The extensive series of canvases captures the vanishing
local culture – its folk costumes, architecture and traditions. Perhaps the most impressive are
the portraits of women in folk costumes, created during just a few hours when the models
stood for him. Here, Kuba employed his hitherto artistic experience as well as the masterful
treatment of brush and colours.
Kuba succeeded to complete publishing the collection of the Slavic songs in 1929 – after the
unbelievable 45 years – and he again buried himself in painting. He created a vast collection of
still-lifes and views into gardens during the 1930s and 1940s. His series of more than forty selfportraits is also exceptional.
The Impressionist style, which fully reappeared in Kuba’s paintings during this period, not only
resonated with his perception of reality but also with his conviction that “colours must shine
brightly on the palette and equally brightly they must shine on the paintings, which must be
weaved instead of mixed of them”. Thirty years on from the first garden interiors, his canvases
radiated the same energy and displayed the same lightweight brushwork, while his treatment of
colour dots became even more liberated. And although Kuba’s morphology in the last stage of
his oeuvre – between 1940 and 1956 – did not noticeably change, it achieved remarkable
qualities.
In 1933, Kuba celebrated his 70th birthday and the series of exhibitions held to celebrate the
anniversary brought him official acknowledgement also from the professional public. And
although it was hard for him to bear the tragic events of the Second World War, he
paradoxically enjoyed increasing attention and success from the public and his works became
much sought-after at the art market.
On 9 November 1945, the freshly appointed post-war Czechoslovak government awarded
Ludvík Kuba – as the first painter ever − the title of National Artist. In the local political
conditions of the 1950s, such an award naturally entailed the heavy burden of political
involvement. Kuba nevertheless coped with the situation honestly, having no desire at all to be
publicly engaged. By coincidence, however, his works painted between 1946 and 1949 at the
Hostýň estate of his friends, the Vojtěch family, became part of all exhibitions of the new postwar art and absolutely overshadowed all that Kuba had done before. His last works date to
1955 and the artist died the very next year at the age of 93.
The publication accompanying the exhibition:
Ludvík Kuba – The Last Impressionist
Coll., Veronika Hulíková, Petr Kaleta, Jiřina Langhammerová, Petr Štembera
The comprehensive monograph, which includes many yet unpublished documents and
contemporary photographs, is divided into several chapters mapping out the development of
Kuba’s oeuvre, his travels to Sorbia and the Balkans and also his hitherto totally omitted
posters. The extensive visual supplement brings more than 300 reproductions of drawings,
pastels and oils.
Published in Czech, with English summary.
Admission to the exhibition:
Basic:
100 CZK
Reduced:
50 CZK
Exhibition partners:
Railreklam, JCDecaux, Praha, Galerie Kodl, České přístavy, a. s.
Media partners:
Česká televize, Český rozhlas, Lidové noviny, Prague Events Calendar, Anopress IT
Technology partner:
Samsung
Press release of 28 November 2013
CONTACT FOR JOURNALISTS:
Eva Kolerusová, press spokeswoman
Phone: +420 222 321 459
Mobile phone: +420 724 501 535
E-mail: kolerusova@ngprague.cz
Biography
16 April 1863
1876
1877–1879
1879–1883
1883–1885
1884
1885
1886
1887
1888
1889
1890
1891
1892
1893
1894
1895
1896–1904
1904
1904–1911
1910
1911
1922
1923
1925
1927
1928
1929
1945
1956
Ludvík Gustav Kuba was born in Poděbrady as the second child of thirteen
to the family of Ludvík and Anna Kuba
tried to get into the painting Academy in Prague but for financial reasons
the parents chose a teaching career for him instead
studied at a school of organ-playing in Prague
studied at the teachersʼ institute in Kutná Hora
worked as a teacher
published the first volume of the collection The Slavs in Their Songs
abandoned his teaching career, moved to Poděbrady and became
exclusively immersed in his melographic work travelled to Slovakia
travelled to Sorbia, Sub-Carpathian Galicia and Russia
travelled to Russia
travelled to Slovenia began attending the private school of Karel
Liebschner in Prague
travelled to the Slovenian Carinthia and South Styria and to Croatia
travelled to Montenegro and Dalmatia
travelled to Montenegro became an auditer in the studio of Max Pirner at
the Prague Academy
travelled to Dalmatia
in summer, travelled to Bosnia and Herzegovina
interrupted publishing The Slavs in Their Songs due to lack of financing
in autumn, left for Paris where he studied at the private Académie Julian
travelled to Bulgaria
left Paris, travelled to Serbia
on 7 October, married Olga Jouja; in autumn, the couple moved to Mostar
in Bosnia and Herzegovina
sojourned to Munich, studying in the private school of the Slovenian
painter and teacher of painting, Anton Ažbe
on 29 October, a son, Ludvík Mario, was born to the Kuba couple
in December, the family moved to Vienna
lived in Vienna
travelled to Italy
in spring, returned to live in the Czech lands
travelled to Sorbia to paint
the Music Foundation of the Umělecká Beseda art association took charge
of future publishing of The Slavs in Their Songs
travelled to Sorbia to paint for the second time
travelled to Serbia and Macedonia
travelled to Serbia, Macedonia and Slovakia
travelled to Bulgaria and Slovakia
travelled to Slovakia and Sub-Carpathian Ukraine
publishing of The Slavs was completed
was appointed Honorary Professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague
on 9 November 1945, the government awarded him the title National
Artist
Ludvík Kuba died on 30 November at the age of 93