Josef Capek (Czech 1887-1945)
Brother of Karel Capek, famous dramaturge and writer, Josef Capek was one of the most important personas of the inter-war cultural entourage in Czechoslovakia.
Josef Capek studied at the Academy of Art in Prague and after that he spent one year in Paris. Coming back in 1911 he draws on his experience gained in France where he encountered cubism as a new artistic style; in the same year he became a redactor of the art-revue Volne Smery that focused on new tendencies in the world of art.
It was in 1917 when Capek received his first acclaim following the publication of the issue of the progressive Berliner magazine Die Aktion devoted to him. One year later he finds himself amongst the founding members of the group Tvrdosijni and exhibits 31 of his oils, drawings and graphics at its first show. Apart from that he publishes in various other magazines such as Cerven and Musaion.
The next two decades of his life were entwined with the activity of the Lidove noviny, daily newspaper that was to become the leading media of political and cultural reflection in inter-war Czechoslovakia.
In 1924 there was his first one-man show at the gallery Rudolfinum in Prague exhibiting his oils, drawings and graphics. Since his first encounter with cubism in Paris Capek has developed his own personal style and later in 1930's distanced himself from the dogmas of cubism whatsoever. He started experimenting with expressive style but retained his fresh and almost childlike artistic idiom also to be found in his stories for children about a fellowship of a cat and dog, Povidani o pejskovi a kocicce. His work from the 1930's was marked by the rise of fascism in Germany - hence the painting The Fire and The Longing - and the occupation of Czechoslovakia 1939 lead to his imprisonment and untimely death in the concentration camp Bergen-Belsen in 1945.
Public collections include
Art Gallery, Ostrava
National Gallery, Prague
Regional Art Gallery, Olomouc
Bibliography
J. SLAVIK and J. OPELIK, Josef èapek. Brno 1996.