Still Life with Glass Jug

Still Life with Glass Jug is a rare example of František Muzika’s early work, when the painter forged his own style on the borders of Cubism and magical realism. A still life depicting a blue glass jug with a silhouetted figure, a red ceramic mug, and a cup rendered in an impressive, almost architectural, shape is composed on a dark background. The static objects, formed with clear colour contrasts and precise dimensions, radiate their own symbolic strength, taking on an almost metaphysical character. At this time, Muzika was inspired by French Modernism, especially the Neoclassical trends that followed World War I. He was also deeply affected by a 1920 posthumous exhibition of Bohumil Kubišta’s works held by The Fine Art Association in Prague (Rudolfinum, 8 February – 9 March 1920); Kubišta’s pursuit of the spiritual dimension of matter had a profound influence on Czech magic realism. Muzika adopted a technique for the internal illumination of simplified shapes that transforms the depicted reality into an intense, vivid vision. At the same time, the arrangement of surfaces and transparency of individual vessels in the painting reflect his knowledge of the spatial principles of synthetic Cubism. The aim was not to capture the external shape of things, but to break through the surface to reveal the hidden essence. The ordinary objects captured on the canvas thus take on a symbolic meaning, radiating their own light and becoming intangible spiritual objects with a deeper existential resonance. They also reference the love for the most commonplace of things formulated in the poetry of Jiří Wolker and Josef Čapek’s writing on the “humblest art” from the same period. As shown in the photograph, the painting was first presented at the Spring Exhibition in 1922, which has sometimes been designated the first Devětsil exhibition (Jarní výstava 1922, The Fine Art Association in Prague, Rudolfinum, 29 April – 21 May 1922, cat. no. 42). The daily newspaper Prager Presse covered the event and printed an article with several views of the exhibition (Prager Presse II, 21 May 1922, no. 21, p. 2). The painting comes from the collection of the architect Karel Honzík. Assessed in consultation with Professor J. Zemina and PhDr. R. Michalová, PhD. The expert opinion of PhD. K. Srp is attached: “The light introduces a unique tension into the still life, causing the individual shapes to shine, or, on the contrary, concealing them. Muzika made excellent use of the contrast between green and red tones. The painting fundamentally enriches the understanding of Czech painting after World War I. It is a valuable contribution to the spectrum of art at the time, as well as a masterful painting.”