Lot 94

Karel Kotrba (1893 - 1938) PORTRAIT OF FRANTIŠEK KUPKA

Sculptor Karel Kotrba created a number of portraits of important figures, including those on the art scene (such as Karel Holan, Jaroslav Kvapil, Otokar Březina, Jan Neruda, Václav Vilém Štech). This work is also a very authentic portrait of his friend František Kupka, created when the sculptor resided at the Kupkas’ in Paris in 1927-1928, and it apparently is the only thing he brought back home from the trip.

Karel Kotrba originally trained as a stuccoer (in 1912–1913) and attended evening classes in sculpting at the School of Applied Arts in Prague. He fought in World War I and was a POW, returning to Czechoslovakia in 1919 as a French Legionnaire. Immediately after the war he applied to the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague and studied medal making under Professor Otakar Španiel, after which he went on a study trip to Paris. In the early 1920s he, Pravoslav Kotík, and classmates Karel Holan and Miroslav Holý joined Umělecká Beseda. After five years at Umělecká Beseda, they found themselves at the center of a conflict with the more conservative wing of the association. This conflict escalated in late 1924/early 1925 and they migrated to the Mánes Union of Fine Artists, where in contrast they were viewed as traditionalists. Following a conflict they were expelled in 1930. The name “Ho-Ho-Ko-Ko Social Group” was coined later, according to an anthology written by art aesthetician Bohumil Markalous (not published). Experiences from the war and life on the outskirts, in Prague-Holešovice, were reflected in Kotrba’s work. His sensitivity to social issues can be seen in his chosen themes and in his sculpting style, which is categorized as a part of the Social Art movement of the 1920s. He exhibited abroad at Czechoslovak exhibitions at the Venice Biennale (1930, 1936), Vienna (1934), Brussels (1935) and Stockholm (1936).
Plaster copes of Portrait of František Kupka is included in the collections of the National Gallery in Prague and GASK – Gallery of the Central Bohemian Region.