PT Journal
AU Kitzler, P
TI From Kralovske Vinohrady Around The World And Back : Life and work of the painter Josef Kitzler
SO Staleta Praha
PY 2022
BP 28
EP 47
VL 38
IS 1
DI 10.56112/sp.2022.1.02
WP https://staletapraha.cz/en/artkey/pha-202201-0002.php
DE Josef Kitzler - painting - interwar Czech art - cultural history - Orientalism - Academy of Fine Arts in Munich - S. V. U. Manes - Modern Gallery in Prague - German Academy of Sciences in Prague - the First Czechoslovak Republic - Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia - Kralovske Vinohrady (Royal Vineyards quarter in Prague) - South Africa - Xhosa people - Karel Kitzler - Vaclav Spala
SN 02316056
AB The following article is the first more detailed up to date text dedicated to the academic painter Josef Kitzler (1891-1965?), born in Kralovske Vinohrady, who spent many years of his life travelling, working and exhibiting in a number of European, American and African cities. Today an almost forgotten artist, painter and illustrator, his work generally belonged to the broader stream of classical modernism of the First Czechoslovak Republic. However, Kitzler's paintings inspired by his repeated stays in South Africa, often depicting local natives as well as lush exotic vegetation, thematically significantly diverge from the main stream and do not lose on attraction even today. This article cannot contain complex art historical analysis of Kitzler's work or a relevant evaluation of his place in interwar Czechoslovak art. The aim is, for the first time, to factually fill in at least some blank spaces in the life story of Josef Kitzler, with the help of newly discovered or revised information, and on the basis of contemporary reviews to expound how his work was accepted in interwar Czechoslovakia. Attached coloured plates represent the range of his paintings, which are kept in private collections, with only two exceptions according to current findings.
ER