The Traces of Modernism. Art Deco Ceramics from Moravia. The Art of Hubert Kovařík

The sculptor and ceramist Hubert Kovařík (1888-1958) belonged to a strong generation of young artists trained at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Vienna by leading artists of the Vienna Secession and modernism (Löffler, private lessons Hanak). During only two decades when he was intensively involved in ceramics in Vienna and then in the newly established Czechoslovak Republic there arose dozens of designs for small utility and art ceramics, the shape of which captured the zeitgeist, complemented period interiors and even played a part on the film screen in films produced in the AB Barrandov studios, such as Kristián. Ceramics by Hubert Kovařík, with their rich décor composed of geometrically stylised floral motifs, became synonymous in Moravia with Art Deco production. They are some of the most interesting yet so far little known examples of art ceramics from the 1920s in the country.

The central point of the exhibition is decorative ceramics and small utilitarian ceramics documenting designs for Kunštátská keramika and the production of his own Decorative Art Workshop of Hubert Kovařík which he founded in Svitávka near Boskovice and managed between 1922-1932. The display will include large decorative vases, drinking sets and boxes for sweets. A large proportion of the exhibits are figurative sculptures with formal features related to the production of Wiener Keramik of M. Powolny and B. Löffler. The exhibition will incorporate rare surviving written documents and photographs from the estate of Hubert Kovařík, particularly in the form of original designs from the artist's sketch books, work books and notebooks, complete with realizations of applied and decorative ceramics. It is the first larger presentation of Hubert Kovařík's work in Brno after more than 90 years. It is also one of the first projects in a series prepared by the department of applied art that endeavours to chart the little known production of decorative art workshops in Bohemia and Moravia which developed in the first half of the 20th century, and at regular intervals to introduce a number of artists who often worked from a single workshop.