Špála Václav 1885–1946

Pears, 1941

oil on canvas, frame, 20 × 28 cm, signed. LD V Špála 41

Provenance: important collection of the owner from North Moravia

Professionally consulted by PhDr. Marie Dohnalová, PhDr. Rea Michalová, PhD.

The painting under consideration "Pears on a Carpathian blanket" is authentic, typical, vitalistic, truly as a piece of fine art jewellery by Václav Špála, a passionate painter whose work represents one of the most proven classic values of Czech modern art. As he aptly put it Otakar Mrkvička, Špála "lived (...) only by the fact of painting. In it he lived again and again his joy of reality". Each of his works, built in a sovereign way, fresh handwriting, nourished by the cubist tradition, testifies to his creative passion. From the 1920s onwards, questions of painterly experimentation receded into the background, the artist worked as he experienced the world. He himself commented on this in the words: "The motif I use the motif to assert myself, to enjoy myself, to develop my artistic sense, the echoes of my emotional stirrings." His painterly "obsession" gave ...most typically, his extensive series of bouquets and still lifes. It was in these that he triumphed Špál's essential vitalism; we can feel in them the delight of a celebratory hymn to the richness and beauty of nature. Špála met most of the avant-garde representatives of his generation (E. Filla, B. Kubišta, A. Procházka, B. Feigl, V. Beneš, V. Nowak, O. Kubín) already while studying at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague in 1903-1909. Power He did not devote himself to his studies, however, because the conservative way of teaching there did not suit him at all. Professor Franz Thiele also wrote him a rather unflattering "He worked outside the school all year and was a deviant, ...and deviant goals that were not within the school." This "rebelliousness", however, preserved the purity of Špál's artistic talent. With the group Osma, although he was not a member, he shared the courage for unconventional artistic expression. Subsequently, however, he no longer overcoming the "shyness of a country boy" and participating in artistic progressive associations - the Group of Artists (1911-1914) and the Tvrdošíjní group (1918-1924). In 1936 he became chairman of the SVU Mánes. Václav Špála was attracted to art that mirrored his natural temperament, the joy of creation. His studio in his villa in Prague's Ořechovka district seemed to be a po year-round, the sun shines through the summer landscape - in paintings of landscapes, flowers, still lifes as if meadows were blooming and crops were ripening, forests smelled and water levels glistened. The painting under consideration "Pears on a Carpathian Blanket" is a work that synthesizes Špála's many years of painting experience and speaks well of his direction in the second half of his life, when his main creative interests included was still life painting. In the presented painting "Pears on a Carpathian Blanket", Václav Špála achieved masterful artistic integrity and fullness, which has the character of a "painterly synecdoche of natural or cosmic events" (J. Hlušička). The attractiveness of this chamber canvas is enhanced by the fact that his first owner was František Venera (1901-1979), a great collector and an unforgettable actor in Brno's cultural life, secretary of the Group of Artistic Artists in Brno, director of the local House of Art, editor, publisher and theoretician. From the opinion of PhDr. Rei Michalová, Ph. D.