Petra Kernová

Spor o Bílka: Z dopisů Josefa Maudera, Julia Zeyera, Zdenky Braunerové a jejich současníků

This article looks back on the atmosphere of the Czech art world in the nineteenth century, when the young generation began to move away from the values and creative methods defended in the conservative circles of the academy and replace them with new, modern methods of artistic self-expression. From a study of the wealth of correspondence among the papers of the Prague-based sculptor Josef Mauder (1854–1920) the author is able to observe the sharp debate sparked amongst the sculptor and his friends by the Symbolist work of František Bílek, Mauder’s student. In the late nineteenth century Mauder was at the peak of his creativity and by merit became a figure of high standing in Prague artistic circles, not just with respect to his sculptural work but also in the area of theory. Mauder supported the young sculptor František Bílek at the start of his career, but their paths were separated by the very different approaches they took to their work. The correspondence exchanged between Josef Mauder and painter Zdenka Braunerová, poet Julius Zeyer, and František Bílek himself, after the latter was stripped of his scholarship and then defended by Braunerová in an article published in Nový život [The New Life], sketch a picture of a period saturated with diverse opinions and debates, an era of artistic upheavals, when the principles of the academy were tossed aside in pursuit of modern twentieth-century art.

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