Emil Filla Czechoslovakian Cubistic Sculpture... Lot n° 1

EMIL FILLA - THE HEAD w/ Expert Evaluation and Authentication by PhDr. Jan Stibr - A Plaster sculpture (dimensions: Height 53 cm / or 20.86'' ), deeply hand-engraved signature in the lower part of the sculpture: “E. Filla” see photo #6, resting upon a square brown-stained wooden base (dimensions of the base: H 4,5 cm x Length 36 cm or 14.17'' )... This sculptural work of Emil Filla falls into his most productive period of his life, during which he created larger amounts sculptures and reliefs, as stated by a fellow artist Vojtěch Lahoda in a monograph Emil Filla, Praha 2007 page 439 ad. A reproduction of this sculpture “The Head” made of a clayey siltstone (from the National Gallery Prague) is mentioned in the Emil Filla book, page 443. The same head is found in an Emil Filla Sochař exhibition catalogue; opening text by Jaromír Zemina. This exhibition that took place in the North Bohemian Gallery of Fine Arts in Litoměřice in 2002. Jaromír Zemina states in this catalogue: “The origin of these impressive heavy-weight sculptures (Henry Moore is also known to be able to capture the weight of material in such a suggestive mean of expression) influenced E. Filla, and that is why he decided to stone-carve some of his Head sculptures. (Instead of using other type of material). This is clearly our case here - it is an original sculpture by Emil Filla which he, later on, created in stone. Looking at the details of the execution, we can say that Emil Filla rather appreciated this sculpture, which is shown by the artist’s FULL signature, in contrast with his other artworks in stone. In this particular case we are looking at a more dramatically expressed concept of the lower part of the sculpture, see photo #5, with more pronounced spatula-work or even hand-work. This dramatic expression of the artist is not so much visible in his later works where he used stone as a sculpting material. The sculpture (“The Head” - in stone) was auctioned at the Adolf Loos Apartment and Gallery in May 2017, see photo #7-8. One can assume that our original plaster sculpture served as a base model for his stone-carved sculpture that he made later on, that is after the plaster sculpture was created. Emil Filla - Biography EMIL FILLA *born 4th April 1882 in Chropyně *died 7th October 1953 in Prague Studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague (prof. F. Thiele and V. Bukovac). He was a member of the following organisations of artists: Osma, S.U.V. Mánes Edvard Munch Exhibition in Prague in 1905 has stirred up the fading Art Nouveau period and showed a new direction to the local artists, including Emil Filla. He was a leading figure of the legendary art organisation Osma, which was the first one of its kind to proclaim its openness to the new styles in the world of art. Osma’s first art exhibition took place in Prague already in 1907. Filla's early creation combined A. Mucha’s symbolism and van Gogh’s expressiveness. An important part of Filla’s inspiration and work were his travels to Germany, Netherlands, France and Italy. During these travel he came across Cubism which irrevocably changed his principles in his homeland. Filla quits the Manes organization and establishes his own Group of Fine Artists in 1911, enforcing Cubism. Picasso's and Gerge Braque’s artworks happened to be a major turnaround for Filla, and so he closely followed their artworks. As a follower of Cubism he went through a rather interesting evolution - from synthetic and analytic cubism, to lyric cubism - Filla’s work is broad and includes figural and still-life painting, drawings, graphic work and last but not least, sculptures. Nude female figures from 1932-1936 are characteristic for their organic shapes, round shapes together with strong coloration and plastic-linear rhythm of his paintings. In the second half of the 30’s and 40’s he drew inspiration from the age-old quarrel of good and evil in classical Greek mythology. He tried to capture a female silhouette also in his sculptural works. Filla paints cycles of national songs, ballads and rhymes, following the Alšov tradition. Due to his anti-fascist attitude and home-land protection Filla was imprisoned until the end of the WWII. It took him almost a year before he could return to his artworks, after being held in a concentration camp in Buchenwald. Towards the end of his life, Filla spent most of the time in a castle in Peruci, where he created a group of paintings capturing the panoramic view of the Czech Central Highlands.