JAN MATULKA (American 1890-1972)

Description

JAN MATULKA (American 1890-1972)
Landscape with fountain
Ink on paper, c.1940
11in. x 8.5in. (sight size)
Signed lower right: J. Matulka

Jan Matulka's landscape is a finely designed drawing. done in a synthetic cubistic style, somewhat reminiscent of the work of his colleague, Stuart Davis. Born in Prague, Czechoslovakia, Matulka came to the Bronx, New York in 1907, where he had a poverty-ridden childhood with a mother who tried to raise a family by herself. From 1908 to 1917, he studied at the National Academy of Design, and in 1917, received the first Pulitzer traveling scholarship with which he traveled and painted in the Southwest and Florida. His work from this period showed a turning towards a more abstract style, replacing his earlier realism. In 1919, he first went to Paris and then returned in 1927 on a scholarship from the National Academy. In Paris, he was exposed to Cubism, and his painting after that seemed always to carry that influence. He had his first one-man exhibit in New York City in 1925, and by 1930, he and Stuart Davis were experimenting with their version of Cubism. Concurrently for New Masses, Matulka did satiric illustrations expressing sympathy for the working classes. From 1929 to 1931, Matulka taught at the Art Students League where he inspired emerging modernists such as David Smith, Dorothy Dehner, and I Rice Pereira. In the late 1930s, he became a WPA mural artist.

Keywords: modern art, cubism, abstract, landscape, ink, drawing

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