For the second time, the public can meet with pieces from the distinguished fine art collection of Jan and Meda Mladek , the couple of Czech origin who emigrated to Washington, in the exhibition halls of the Ludwig Museum Budapest – Museum of Contemporary Art. Following the works of Jiři Kolař, we now present a selection from the works of two other world famous Czech artists, the paintings of Frantisek Kupka (1871-1957) and the sculptures of Otto Gutfreund (1889-1927).
The three Czech artists mentioned above carry a special significance for Meda Mládková , as she not only collected their works, but she also contributed to the art historical elaboration of their three oeuvres. She herself wrote an essay on the artwork of František Kupka, which can be read in the catalogue published in connection with the exhibition.
In her study, Meda Mládková proves that Kupka, as opposed to his contemporaries in Paris, reached abstract painting not through Cubism, but rather, going on his own, individual path, he obtained similar results. In Kupka’s retrospective exhibition organised in Prague in 1946, his works were divided among eight categories. These categories diverge extremely one from the other: they extend from traditional, figurative depictions, through geometric and organic pictures, to experiments with colour. What is interesting is that these categories are not delimited from one another chronologically: these researches of radically different directions occurred in parallel.
The works of Otto Gutfreund emerged in the collection of Jan and Meda Mladek in the 1970s. Their attention was directed to this prominent figure of Czech Cubism not only in connection with the works of Kupka, but the artwork of Gutfreund was also an important reference for the members of the Czech post-war sculptors’ generation – his experiments and his undertaking of both moral and artistic responsibility.
Pieces from the collection of Jan and Meda Mladek have been presented on numerous occasions in America and in the various cities of Western Europe. Most recently, the public has had the chance to see these works in the Municipal Gallery of Bratislava and then the Egon Schiele Centre of Česky Krumlov, which, following the Budapest exhibition, will receive their permanent installation in the Kampa Museum in Prague, established by Meda Mládková .
This exhibition is realised in collaboration with the Central European Cultural Institute, and thus, the works can be seen in two locations concurrently: in the gallery of the Institute (Budapest VIII. district, Rákóczi út 15.) and the exhibition halls of the Ludwig Museum Budapest – Museum of Contemporary Art.
Curator of the exhibition: Anna Bálványos
