Is the Cubism that is Czech also Universal? Czech Art Theory (1921-1958) and Cubism as a Cultural and Transcultural Phenomenon
Abstract
The period covered in this text is delimited by two books by Vincenc Kramář - Cubism (Kubismus), which came out in 1921, and Questions of Modern Art (Otázky moderního umění), published in 1958. But the study also makes selective reference to art-historical conceptions that were formulated later, for instance Miroslav Lamač's 'Cubo-Expressionism' ('kuboexpresionismus').
Attention is devoted too to other methods of interpreting Cubism favoured by Czech art history, methods partly growing out of early Cubist theory, among which we find research into 'modern realism', biographism, an idiosyncratic form of iconology enriched with suggestions of Gestalt theory, and the conception of Czech Cubism as pure 'Picassoism'. The essay analyses to what extent these interpretive frameworks really captured the characteristic features of local pre-war modernism and how far they represented a tendency to mythologise local modern art and culture.