Bohumil Kubišta (21 August 1884 in Vlčkovice,

Bohemia Bohemia ( ; ; ) is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic. In a narrow, geographic sense, it roughly encompasses the territories of present-day Czechia that fall within the Elbe River's drainage basin, but historic ...

– 27 November 1918 in Prague)Chilvers, Ian, and John Glaves-Smith. "Kubišta, Bohumil." in ''A Dictionary of Modern and Contemporary Art''.

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...

, 2009. Oxford Reference. Accessed 15 June 2013. was a

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus *Czech (surnam ...

painter and

art critic An art critic is a person who is specialized in analyzing, interpreting, and evaluating art. Their written critiques or reviews contribute to art criticism and they are published in newspapers, magazines, books, exhibition brochures, and catalogue ...

, one of the founders of Czech modern painting. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, but left in 1906 to study at the Reale Istituto di Belle Arti in

Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...

. He,

Emil Filla Emil Filla (4 April 1882 – 7 October 1953) was a Czech painter. He was a leader of the avant-garde in Prague between World War I and World War II and was an early Cubist painter. Early life Filla was born in Chropyně, Moravia, and spent hi ...

, Antonín Procházka, and five others founded Osma (The Eight), an Expressionist-oriented group of artists.

Work

Kubišta came to his individual expression gradually, at first he was influenced by the work of

Vincent van Gogh Vincent Willem van Gogh (; 30 March 185329 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who is among the most famous and influential figures in the history of Western art. In just over a decade, he created approximately 2,100 artworks ...

and

Paul Cézanne Paul Cézanne ( , , ; ; ; 19 January 1839 – 22 October 1906) was a French Post-Impressionism, Post-Impressionist painter whose work introduced new modes of representation, influenced avant-garde artistic movements of the early 20th century a ...

. He educated himself in

philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

and

optics Optics is the branch of physics that studies the behaviour and properties of light, including its interactions with matter and the construction of optical instruments, instruments that use or Photodetector, detect it. Optics usually describes t ...

, and studied colour and the geometrical construction of painting. Kubišta, like several other Czech artists of his generation, was strongly affected by the 1905

Edvard Munch Edvard Munch ( ; ; 12 December 1863 – 23 January 1944) was a Norwegian painter. His 1893 work ''The Scream'' has become one of Western art's most acclaimed images. His childhood was overshadowed by illness, bereavement and the dread of inher ...

exhibition in Prague. Together with

he established the artistic group OsmaChilvers, Ian, and John Glaves-Smith. "Eight, The." in ''A Dictionary of Modern and Contemporary Art''.

, 2009. Oxford Reference. Accessed 16 June 2013. in 1906 or 1907. He worked in an

Expressionist Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it rad ...

style until 1910, and exchanged ideas with German painters in

Die Brücke Die Brücke (The Bridge), also known as Künstlergruppe Brücke or KG Brücke, was a group of German expressionist artists formed in Dresden in 1905. The founding members were Fritz Bleyl, Erich Heckel, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, and Karl Schmidt-R ...

. He also developed visual ideas learned from the work of Cézanne. His later style (approximately from 1911) was strongly influenced by Expressionism and

Cubism Cubism is an early-20th-century avant-garde art movement which began in Paris. It revolutionized painting and the visual arts, and sparked artistic innovations in music, ballet, literature, and architecture. Cubist subjects are analyzed, broke ...

. Expressionist elements, particularly his use of colour but also his subject matter, immediately distinguish Kubišta's Cubist work (such as his 1912 ''

St Sebastian Sebastian (; ) was an early Christian saint and martyr. According to traditional belief, he was killed during the Diocletianic Persecution of Christians. He was initially tied to a post or tree and shot with arrows, though this did not kill h ...

'') from that of founding Paris Cubists

Picasso Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, Ceramic art, ceramicist, and Scenic ...

Braque Georges Braque ( ; ; 13 May 1882 – 31 August 1963) was a major 20th-century French painter, collagist, draughtsman, printmaker and sculptor. His most notable contributions were in his alliance with Fauvism from 1905, and the role he play ...

and the Section d'Or. He studied colour theory, analyzing the harmonic and compositional principles of painters such as

El Greco Doménikos Theotokópoulos (, ; 1 October 1541 7 April 1614), most widely known as El Greco (; "The Greek"), was a Greek painter, sculptor and architect of the Spanish Renaissance, regarded as one of the greatest artists of all time. ...

Eugène Delacroix Ferdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix ( ; ; 26 April 1798 – 13 August 1863) was a French people, French Romanticism, Romantic artist who was regarded as the leader of the French Romantic school.Noon, Patrick, et al., ''Crossing the Channel: ...

, and

. He also paid close attention to mathematical and geometric principles. Around 1911, he became acquainted with

Jan Zrzavý Jan Zrzavý (5 November 1890 – 12 October 1977) was a Czech painter, graphic artist and illustrator. Biography Zrzavý was born on 5 November 1890 in Vadín in Bohemia (today a part of Okrouhlice in the Czech Republic). He studied privately in P ...

and the artistic group Sursum. Kubišta joined the army in 1913. He died during the global

1918 flu pandemic The 1918–1920 flu pandemic, also known as the Great Influenza epidemic or by the common misnomer Spanish flu, was an exceptionally deadly global influenza pandemic caused by the Influenza A virus subtype H1N1, H1N1 subtype of the influenz ...

which ravaged Europe during and after the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

Paintings

File:Bohumil Kubišta.jpg, ''Self-portrait'', 1908 File:KubištaStillifewithskull.jpg, ''Still life with Skull'', 1912 File:Bohumil_Kubišta_-_Svatý_Šebestián_(1912).jpg, ''St Sebastian'', 1912 File:Bohumil Kubišta - Fakir Taming Snakes.jpg, ''Fakir Taming Snakes'', 1915 File:Kubista, Bohumil - Polibek smrti (1912).jpg, ''Kiss of death'', 1912

References and sources

;References ;Sources *Nešlehová, Mahulena: ''Bohumil Kubišta''. Prague: Odeon, 1984. *Černá, Marie: ''Dějiny výtvarného umění''. Prague: Idea Servis, 2005. *Jörg Deuter, Zweimal Prager Frühling. Über eine Ausstellung, die nicht sein durfte, und über Bohumil Kubista und die Maler der "Brücke". Buchholz 2019.

External links

Bohumil Kubišta, paintings in museums and public art galleries worldwide
Artcyclopedia {{DEFAULTSORT:Kubista, Bohumil 1884 births 1918 deaths 20th-century Czech painters Czech male painters Czech cubist artists People from Hradec Králové District Deaths from the Spanish flu pandemic 20th-century Czech male artists Czech art critics