Emil Filla

Beginning in 1910 he painted primarily in a Cubist style,[1] strongly influenced by Picasso and Braque, and produced works such as Salome (1911) and Bathers (1912).

In the late 1920s and early 1930s, Surrealist influence also began to show in his painting and sculpture, and he was a participant in Poesie 1932, an international exhibition in Prague that introduced Surrealism to the Czech public.

[2] On the first day of World War II he was arrested by the gestapo for his anti-Nazi activism together with painter Josef Čapek and others and was subsequently imprisoned in German concentration camps Dachau and Buchenwald.

[3] However, he survived, returned home and began to teach at the Vysoká škola uměleckoprůmyslová v Praze (VŠUP—Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague).

Filla's teachings at the Academy ensure the continuance of Czech Cubism, and his influence is notable in the works of his pupil Milos Reindl amongst others.

After the war, he exhibited mainly works from the cycle Boje a zápasy (Fights and Struggles), and later mainly produced landscapes.