Otto Gutfreund

Otto Gutfreund (August 3rd, 1889 with Dvůr Králové nad Labem, Area of Hradec Králové then in Austria-Hungary - June 2nd, 1927 with Prague, Czechoslovakia) is a Czech sculptor and one of the founders of the Modern art Czech. It is an important representative of the Czechoslovakian Cubisme, one of rare to have reached an international reputation with regard to the initial stage of the cubism, the analytical Cubisme.

Biography

Born in an Jewish family from Bohemia of North, it takes its first steps in a school of pottery with Bechyně as from 1903 then of 1906 to 1909 with the École of the applied arts of Prague. Then it spends some time to Paris where he is the pupil of Antoine Bourdelle within the Academy of the Large Thatched cottage.

To the sides of the painters Czech cubists Emil Spun and Bohumil Kubišta, it develops its style and becomes one of the precursors of the sculpture cubist with Pablo Picasso and Alexander Archipenko. It founds with several other personalities of the world of arts the group Skupina výtvarných umělců (Group of the artists), with Prague in 1911 with which it exposte by twice in 1912. It is present at the first Deutscher Herbstsalon in 1913 then in the gallery Der Sturm of Herwarth Walden to Berlin, and at the Goltz living room of Munich. 1914 mark the fourth and last expostion of the Group of the Artists in Prague. In 1914, it engages in the Czech Légions at the sides of František Kupka. It is quickly promoted but, in 1916, protesting against the inhuman living conditions of the legionaries and asking his transfer in the French Army, it is regarded as insubordinate by its superiors who send it in a camp of internment in Provence (the Bohemia belongs to the Austria-Hungary with which the France is in war and it is out of the question to leave free the national of an enemy nation). It remains there of 1916 until after the armistice, in 1919.

The shortly after the First World War, it saw a miserable existence in Paris then it returns, in 1920, with Prague to become one of the leaders of the modernistic generation of the First Czechoslovakian Republic. Its artistic achievements influenced many young artists of the new Republic. From this point of view, it is thus a key character.

He gives up (like Picasso about at the same time and undoubtedly for the same reasons) the style cubist to briefly explore the constructivism then to pass to the Figuration in the years 1920. One owes him the sculptures of the frontage of Légiobanka in the street Na Poříčí, built between 1921 and 1923, are a historic building classified by UNESCO as a single representation of the Rondocubisme. In addition to the participation in projects of monumental sculpture, it becomes famous for the edition of small sizes where it interprets the topics of the ordinary life ( Industrie , 1923 when two workmen repair a diesel engine - Commerce , 1923 when a man on the telephone dictates a letter with a secretary who types with the machine). It takes part in exposures of modern art both in Czechoslovakia and abroad. He is member of the artistic Cercle Mánes of 1920 to 1927.

In 1926, it is named professor of the École of the applied arts of Prague in 1926 what enables him to be abstracted from the dependence to the public orders and to concentrate to its own work. Exhausted mentally and physically, he dies of drowning, in the Vltava, on June 2nd, 1927.

One can see his works with the national Galerie in Prague and with the Musée Kampa also located in Prague.

Work

In 1911, its first (and for a long time its only) public order is the sculpture of the portrait-medallions which decorate the bridge Hlávek (Hlávkův most) in Prague built under the direction of Pavel Janák then architect of the department of the Bridges and Chaussées of the town of Prague.

Influenced by the Parisian artistic avant-garde, in particular by paintings cubists of Pablo Picasso, he undertakes to apply the lessons of the cubism to the sculpture and creates Úzkost ( Angoisse ) in 1911-1912, reflecting his emotion between Expressionnisme and symbolism.

Then come a Buste from the father (Podobizna otce) in 1912, a Hamlet between 1912 and 1913 and a Torse cubist (Kubistické poprsí) between 1913 and 1914 which is regarded by the art critic Douglas Cooper as the first sculpture cubist.

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