Still Life with Pipe and Card

This elegant and distinctive painting from the turn of the 1920s and 1930s comes from a period when Filla was at the pinnacle of his creative strength and his work enjoyed international renown. In this phase, which has also been designated “the white period,” he skillfully combines the legacy of the modernist movements with his own experiments. Still lifes with bold, sculptural expression and refined colour palettes prominently incorporating white – either as a dominant element or throughout the composition – are characteristic of this period. This striking painting still bears echoes of lyrical Cubism but primarily appeals to us with its narrow, panoramic format. This demonstrates that Filla was interested in this format prior to the early 1950s, when he created his landscapes from Central Bohemian Highlands. In reality, the horizontal format appears continuously in works across his entire oeuvre, reaching its peak in the 1950s. The shape of Filla’s canvas posed a challenging task. On the right side of the clearly organised composition, we find a bowl with fruit, stylised with thin, black lines. Next to the bowl, on the left, are additional objects – a Dutch pipe, a glass, and a playing card depicting the ace of spades – also captured in reduced, abstractly conceived outlines. The radiant white paint immediately draws the viewer’s eye. No mere background or foreground, it permeates the entire painting, which is devoid of any other source of illumination and thus becomes the sole bearer of all the light values. The significance of the work is increased by its original state as arranged by the author. The authenticity has been confirmed by the Filla Foundation and the painting will appear in a forthcoming inventory of the artist’s works. Assessed in consultation with PhDr. R. Michalová, PhD and Mgr. T. Mátl Donné. The expert opinion of PhDr. K. Srp is attached: “[...] The powerfully effective sensual richness that pervades the shapes and colours opens before the viewer in this striking, horizontal painting, demonstrating that the author reached a pivotal point in 1930 when his previous experience reached its zenith. At the same time he posed significant painterly questions concerning the perceptual balancing of the right and left sides of the painting while strongly limiting the space, reducing it to a flat surface as much as possible. Thus we have before us not only a meditation on sensual phenomena, but on the method of expression itself. […].”