Bohumil Kubišta and Europe

The book offers a new appreciation of the work of the important Czech modern artist Bohumil Kubišta, in a way that goes beyond the traditional format of art historical monograph. He follows his work by uncovering complex artistic, cultural and historical relationships within the Europe of the early 20th century. Not only Kubišta, but also other Central European artists initially balanced between admiration for the modernist universalism of the artistic directions of the center of Paris and the effort to find an alternative modern expression, growing out of the local artistic and intellectual tradition. However, Kubišt's stubborn effort to initiate the emergence of a strong, timeless and distinctive modern culture was met with a misunderstanding by the domestic audience, which graduated from the mutual conflicts of predatory factions of Prague modernism and definitively shattered in the chaos of the First World War. At the same time, the monograph follows step by step Kubišt's movement along the boulevards and cafés in Paris or cities such as Florence and Pula, where he took part in the First World War as a centurion. He uses cartographic techniques to accurately record the movements of his works between Central European centers and regional cultural centers. Kubišt's network of contacts includes not only important European artists and associations, but also famous works of art that autonomously enter new situations and do not respect the anthropocentric perspective of traditional art history.