The National Gallery in Prague presents the exhibition École de Paris: Artists from Bohemia and Interwar Paris, which highlights a significant yet previously underexplored chapter of Czech art in France. The exhibition is on display at the Waldstein Riding School (Valdštejnská jízdárna) since 8 November 2024 to 2 March 2025.
Between the two world wars, Paris was the center of the cosmopolitan art world, where diverse styles intermingled. The exhibition transports visitors to galleries, salons, and Montmartre, introducing them to artists and collectors, as well as prostitutes and people on the margins of society. It depicts scenes from cabarets, portraits of artists, still lifes, and Provençal landscapes.
“Even though names like František Kupka, Josef Šíma, Jindřich Štyrský, and Toyen are most often associated with Czech art in France today, the Parisian public at the time had very different preferences. Kars, Coubine, and Eberl were much better known and exhibited in the most prestigious galleries. We aim to present their work within the broader context of the Parisian school,” says the curator of the exhibition, Anna Pravdová. In addition to the works of these three artists, the exhibition will also feature pieces by their contemporaries, such as Amedeo Modigliani, Marc Chagall, Suzanne Valadon, Chaïm Soutine, Jules Pascin, Chana Orloff, and Maurice Utrillo.
This exhibition offers a rare opportunity to see in Prague a number of works recently discovered in American collections and returning to Europe for the first time, including a series of works by Othon Coubine that once belonged to the collector Leo Stein, brother of the writer Gertrude Stein.
