Lot 132

Emil Filla (1882 - 1953) STILL LIFE WITH A BLACK GUITAR AND FRUIT

From the expert opinion of PhDr. Rea Michalová Ph.D.: "The presented painting "Still Life with a Black Guitar and Fruit" is an original, gallery quality, exquisitely cubist work of Emil Filla, whose artistic talent, strong intellectual foundation and respectable literacy have made him a truly unique cultural a personality of his time, endowed with a special fluid of seriousness and prominence. In his paintings, drawings, graphics and sculptures, he valued the discoveries of Cubism, which he updated with new theoretical studies and developed in many distinctive modifications, releasing the synthetic Cubist vocabulary into more organic, often libidinous forms. The time, when the assessed painting was created, it belonged to an extremely happy period, which can be described as one of the peaks of Filla's creative and life forces. In 1932, the painter turned fifty years old, and he addressed his round jubilee with a generously conceived collective exhibition in Prague's Mánes, which included approx. 360 works from the years 1902-1932, although the catalog only lists works up to 1931. Among the paintings that presented the author's creative direction up to the latest date and were added to the exhibition was the presented, artistically extremely strong and for the painter the most representative "Still Life with a Black Guitar and Fruit". "Still Life with a Black Guitar and Fruit" stylistically falls into the period of late organic cubism, when, in Filla's view, the painting becomes a "lush riot" of colors and forms that wedge into each other and complement each other harmoniously. The presented work is a wonderful proof of exactly that. In a visually very pleasant and representative format, there is an ingenious balancing of tendencies towards sensual hedonism and a well-thought-out construction of the image field."

Provenance: originally the collection of PhDr. JUDr. Jaroslav Borovička (1912-2009), a leading collector of Czech modern art; since the 1990s in the possession of the important Wagner artistic family

Exhibited: Jubilee exhibition of works by Emil Filla, Society of Fine Artists Mánes, Prague, 29 April - 29 May 1932