AUC PHILOSOPHICA ET HISTORICA
AUC PHILOSOPHICA ET HISTORICA

AUC Philosophica et Historica (Acta Universitatis Carolinae Philosophica et Historica) is a multidisciplinary academic journal focused on the humanities with more than 50 years of tradition.

The journal is indexed in CEEOL, DOAJ, and EBSCO.

AUC PHILOSOPHICA ET HISTORICA, Vol 2021 No 2 (2021), 69–76

Náš český Millet? Joža Uprka, lidové a české umění

[Our Czech Millet? Joža Uprka, Folk Art and Czech Art]

Marta Filipová

DOI: https://doi.org/10.14712/24647055.2024.9
published online: 01. 10. 2024

abstract

In April 2022, the Albín Polášek Museum in Florida closed a large exhibition of paintings by Joža Uprka from the private collection of a collector living near Chicago. This exhibit was to be later shown at the Czech embassies in Washington and Paris. In the USA, the work of Joža Uprka is still popular, alongside expressions of folk culture, which take many forms. They range from collected items to observing folk traditions by the diaspora of many generations. The town of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, for example, has always had a strong Czech community, and today it houses the National Czech and Slovak Museum, which regularly exhibits folk art and works of art closely associated with folk culture of the homeland. The diaspora has preserved a specific Czechness, Slovakness and even a Czechoslovak character of folk art, as seen in the practices of folk culture or captured in the paintings by artists such as Uprka. The text examines understanding of folk art as Czech and national, while I focus mainly on the territory outside of today’s Czech Republic. Why has the Czech and Slovak diaspora, even in large urban agglomerations, associated folk art so intimately with the nation and national art? Who has been promoting these associations? Have they been accepted universally, or were there any alternatives of national art?

keywords: folk art; diaspora; USA; Joža Uprka; modern art; national identity; homeland

references (5)

1. Drost George T., "A Personal Journey into Art Collecting: A Note by George Drost", National Treasure: The Art of Joža Uprka from the George T. Drost Collection, Chicago 2011.

2. Jež Štěpán, Joža Uprka. K pátému výročí umělcovy smrti, Praha 1944.

3. Kalvoda Alois, Náš český Millet, České slovo V, 29. 10. 1911.

4. Musilová Helena, Joža Uprka - životní data a události, in: Joža Uprka. Evropan slováckého venkova 1861-1940, Praha 2011.

5. The National Czech and Slovak Museum and Library, http://www.ncslm.org/about-ncsml.

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Náš český Millet? Joža Uprka, lidové a české umění is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.


periodicity: 2 x per year
ISSN: 0567-8293
E-ISSN: 2464-7055

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