Růžena Zátková
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Růžena Zátková (15 March 1885 - 29 October 1923), also called Rougina Zatkova, was a painter and sculptor who has been regarded as the "only authentic Czech
futurist Futurists (also known as futurologists, prospectivists, foresight practitioners and horizon scanners) are people whose specialty or interest is futures studies or futurology or the attempt to systematically explore predictions and possibilities ...
." As a result of her Bohemian heritage and her decade-long residency in Rome, Růžena Zátková became an important artistic link between
Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...
and Italian Futurism. Zátková is considered one of the pioneers of
kinetic art Kinetic art is art from any medium that contains movement perceivable by the viewer or that depends on motion for its effects. Canvas paintings that extend the viewer's perspective of the artwork and incorporate multidimensional movement are ...
.


Biography

Born in 1885 to an upper-middle class family in
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 ...
, Růžena Zátková was one of five sisters. Her mother, an accomplished pianist, encouraged her five daughters to pursue education in the arts. Zátková studied music in Prague and also studied under the painter
Antonín Slavíček Antonín Slavíček (16 May 1870 – 1 February 1910) was a Czech Impressionist painter. He worked mostly in the area surrounding Kameničky. Life In 1887, he entered the Academy of Fine Arts, Prague, where he studied landscape painting with J ...
at his private school. She later attended drawing classes in Munich. In 1910, Zátková married the Russian diplomat Basilo Kwoshinky and began to live with him in a large house outside of Rome. However, due to Kwoshinky's impotence and homosexuality, the marriage was never consummated. Zatkova described herself as "married and not married," as the couple never officially separated but instead lived apart for the rest of their lives. The collapse of Zátková's marriage left the artist free to travel and practice her trade. She moved to Rome, where she met Arturo Cappa, the brother of futurist artist
Benedetta Cappa Benedetta Cappa (14 August 1897 – 15 May 1977) was an Italian futurist artist who has had retrospectives at the Walker Art Center and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. Her work fits within the second phase of Italian Futurism. Biography Be ...
, and began "an intense love affair" with him that would become lifelong. In this part of her life, Zatkova never stopped painting, although her early work consists mostly of
Impressionistic Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by visible brush strokes, open Composition (visual arts), composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage ...
landscapes and portraits. Both Zátková and Benedetta Cappa studied under
Giacomo Balla Giacomo Balla (18 July 1871 – 1 March 1958) was an Italian painter, art teacher and poet best known as a key proponent of Futurism. In his paintings, he depicted light, movement and speed. He was concerned with expressing movement in his works ...
, and Zátková has been cited as an influence on Cappa's artistic style. In 1915, Zátková participated in an "Evening of Noisemaking" at the Milan home of
Filippo Tommaso Marinetti Filippo Tommaso Emilio Marinetti (; 22 December 1876 – 2 December 1944) was an Italian poet, editor, art theorist and founder of the Futurist movement. He was associated with the utopian and Symbolist artistic and literary community Abbaye de ...
, the author of the first ''
Futurist Manifesto The ''Manifesto of Futurism'' ( Italian: ''Manifesto del Futurismo'') is a manifesto written by the Italian poet Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, published in 1909. In it, Marinetti expresses an artistic philosophy called Futurism, which rejected the ...
''. Her attendance at this event marked Zátková's public entrance into Marinetti's circle of Italian futurists. By 1915, her artistic style had come into its most mature form, and she began to express the dynamism and ferocity that would come to define her work. Zátková acted as a bridge between Italian and Russian artistic movements, and her exhibitions in Italy “merged Central European and Slavic elements into the stream of the Italian avant-garde experimentation." Her career reached a peak in 1922 after an exhibition of the majority of her body of work at the ''Casa d'Arte Bragalia'' in Rome. In the booklet for this exhibition, painter Enrico Prampolini praised her work, and described her sculptures as possessing a "superb virility". However, the last years of Zátková's life were largely unfortunate, marked both by illness and the exile of Arturo Cappa to France. After a history of poor health, Růžena Zátková died of tuberculosis in 1923 at the age of 38.


Artistic legacy

Inspired by Giacomo Balla's artistic use of movement and speed, Růžena Zátková's works are considered pioneering examples of kinetic art. Her works have been described as lacking "shyness" and possessing a "fiery" sense of momentum. Zátková was also inspired by
Primitivism In the arts of the Western world, Primitivism is a mode of aesthetic idealization that means to recreate the experience of ''the primitive'' time, place, and person, either by emulation or by re-creation. In Western philosophy, Primitivism propo ...
, and her works often include motifs stemming from the folk art traditions of her homeland. Zátková was a close friend of the founders of Neo-Primitivism, Michail Larionov and
Natalia Goncharova Natalia Sergeevna Goncharova (, ; 3 July 188117 October 1962) was a Russian avant-garde artist, painter, costume designer, writer, illustrator, and set designer. Goncharova's lifelong partner was fellow Russian avant-garde artist Mikhail Lariono ...
; they first met in 1915, when
Sergei Diaghilev Sergei Pavlovich Diaghilev ( ; rus, Серге́й Па́влович Дя́гилев, , sʲɪrˈɡʲej ˈpavləvʲɪdʑ ˈdʲæɡʲɪlʲɪf; 19 August 1929), also known as Serge Diaghilev, was a Russian art critic, patron, ballet impresario an ...
invited them to stay with him and the
Ballets Russes The Ballets Russes () was an itinerant ballet company begun in Paris that performed between 1909 and 1929 throughout Europe and on tours to North and South America. The company never performed in Russia, where the Russian Revolution, Revolution ...
at a Swiss villa he had recently rented. In 1916, when Zatkova was ill with tuberculosis, Goncharova dedicated two gouaches to her, which were both rediscovered in 2019. Zátková never dated any of her works, and the creation of a definitive timeline of her career has proved difficult. Many of Zátková's works have gone missing under mysterious circumstances (including the large lot of artworks left to Arturo Cappa after her death), and a re-examination of her decade-long involvement in the Italian futurist movement is required. In 2011, a reproduction of her missing kinetic sculpture ''The Pile Driver'' was displayed at an exhibition in Prague. Two of Zátková's paintings, ''Marinetti'' and ''Water Running Under Ice and Snow'', were displayed alongside works by Giacomo Balla and
Umberto Boccioni Umberto Boccioni (; ; 19 October 1882 – 17 August 1916) was an influential Italian painter and sculptor. He helped shape the revolutionary aesthetic of the Futurism movement as one of its principal figures. Despite his short life, his approach ...
in a 2014 exhibition at the
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, often referred to as The Guggenheim, is an art museum at 1071 Fifth Avenue between 88th and 89th Street (Manhattan), 89th Streets on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. It hosts a permanent coll ...
.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zatkova, Ruzena 1885 births 1923 deaths Czech painters Czech sculptors Czech women painters Czech women sculptors 20th-century Czech women artists 20th-century Czech artists 20th-century Czech painters 20th-century Czech sculptors 20th-century women painters 20th-century women sculptors