Josef Bartuška (1898-1963)

ČESKÉ BUDĚJOVICE

1932
Collage, coloured papers on beige-toned drawing paper, ink. 24.7x20.4 cm (30x21.9 cm). Recto, lower right beneath the image, the artist`s signature in ink; the title of the work in the centre. Bartuška`s collages of coloured paper, created around 1932, represent a remarkable chapter of the Czech interwar avant-garde. They draw on the experiments of European modern art – from the collages of Sonia Delaunay and Alexei Kruchonykh, through Russian Futurism, to the principles of Cubism – while also drawing on children`s visual expression, which Bartuška knew well from his teaching practice. An affinity can also be found with the radical pictorial shorthand of Josef Čapek. Bartuška reduces reality to silhouette, colour field and elementary sign, without abandoning the figurative world. The collage Č. Budějovice is a characteristic example of this approach. Remarkably, Bartuška developed the technique of cut coloured paper more than a decade before Henri Matisse`s celebrated papiers découpés. Perforations in the corners (outside the image area), the collage slightly soiled in a few places. Cf.: Jaroslav Anděl, Avantgarda o mnoha médiích: Josef Bartuška a skupina Linie 1931-1939, Prague 2004, pp. 38-67 (chap. Stříhané barvy).