Václav Špála

Václav Špála ranked to the most prolific painters of the Czech 20th-century Modern, but he still created unique and inimitable works on the edge of Fauvism, Cubism and Abstraction. He left the Prague Academy of Fine Arts for he was not satisfied with its quality and conditions. In the beginning of his artistic career, he set off for the Yugoslavian city of Dubrovnik where he painted numerous landscape motifs in the spirit of Fauvism. He co-founded the Cubist-oriented Group of Fine Artists in 1911, leaving it a year later for he never forged Cubism in a dogmatic way. This period bore his scenes with laundrywomen and bathing nudes. During the 1920s, Špála totally abandoned Cubism and mainly continued in landscape painting, also creating still-lifes and portraits. His oeuvre is characteristic of blue color, later moreover combined with red and white. Špála’s paintings are part of many Czech collections and a prestigious gallery situated in the centre of Prague, which is active till today, received its name after him in the 1950s. Špála also illustrated the icon of the 19th-century Czech literature – the Grandmother by Božena Němcová.

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Artworks of this author offered by Prague Art & Design

Václav Špála

* 1885