The painter and graphic artist Max Švabinský (17 September 1873 Kroměříž – 10 February 1962 Prague) is one of the most important natives of Kroměříž. The representative Memorial at the Kroměříž District Museum presents almost seven decades of Švabinský’s work displayed in six exhibition halls. His paintings and drawings are filled with passion for nature and intrinsically connected with the artist’s personal life. The Memorial presents Max Švabinský as an author of numerous paintings, graphic works, and monumental pieces such as mosaics or stained-glass objects, but also of graphic designs for post stamps and banknotes.
There are works influenced by his study at the Prague Academy of Fine Arts under professor Maxmilián Pirner (St. Wenceslas blesses labour – a study for the Provincial Bank, 1896). Some of his works on display capture the picturesque landscape of the Czech-Moravian Highlands around Kozlov. A pivotal moment in his life was his meeting with the Vejrych family in 1895 (Small family portrait, 1912), in particular with Ela Vejrychová, who became his wife in 1900 (Rose portrait, 1898; study for a Poor country, 1900). A celebration of summer and the symphony of colour harmonies of a summer day in the Paradise Garden in Prague are captured in Yellow parasol, oil on canvas from 1909.
Švabinský’s enchantment with a new type of woman and his passionate affair with Anna Vejrychová (wife of his brother-in-law Rudolf Vejrych) reflects in a cycle of woodcut prints titled Paradise sonata (1917–1920) or in a large group portrait titled Ateliér (1916). The author’s obsession with graphic techniques is apparent e.g. from the Morning hunt (1912) etching, White camellia (1911) mezzotints, but also in many brilliant portraits of prominent persons of his era. The exhibition focuses also on Švabinský’s work on monumental commissions, which he started in the 1930s. In this category belong his designs of stained-glass windows for the St. Vitus cathedral in Prague or mosaic designs for a chapel of the executed legionaries at the Liberation Memorial in Prague-Vítkov. Švabinský’s late period is represented by smaller works capturing his beloved butterflies, but also the artist’s self portraits or a large woodcut of John the Baptist (1930).
Location of the exhibition:
• main building, 1st floor
Explanatory and accompanying texts:
• Czech, English
Publications accompanying the exhibition:
• leaflet in Czech
• leaflet in English (in production)
• Jana Orlíková – Zuzana Švabinská – Jiří Stránský, Max Švabinský: okouzlený milovník života, Praha 2003.
Opened:
• April 2003
Author:
• Jana Orlíková
Gallery
