Mánes Union of Fine Arts
; commonly abbreviated as Manes) was an artists' association and exhibition society founded in 1887 in Prague and named after painter Josef Mánes.
The Manes was significant for its international exhibitions before and after World War I that encouraged interaction between Czech artists and the foreign avant-garde.
Between 1928 and 1930, Manes built a complex with a restaurant, club, showroom and offices at the site of the Štítkovský Mill and water tower on the Vltava.
The Škréta Fellowship continued until its members Alfons Mucha and Luděk Marold left Munich for Paris.
The goals of SVU Mánes were mainly based on an old idea of patriotism with allegorical paintings from the Czech history, but they soon moved to modern art and its influx in Bohemia.
Along with a sculptor, principal patron and chief organizer of SVU Mánes, Stanislav Sucharda, they formed a strong lead.
SVU Mánes' first exhibition was 5 February to 5 March in 1898 in Topič salon (a commercial gallery in the center) in Prague.
SVU Mánes show attracted members of Viennese society, who offered participation to Czech painters to exhibit in Vienna.
František Bílek agreed, while Stanislav Sucharda refused absent an autonomous Czech show in Vienna.
In 1899, SVU Mánes began organizing traveling exhibitions in other towns of Bohemia and Moravia to increase public awareness.
It toured Brno and Vienna, getting more credit on its home soil as a competitor to Rudolfínum, but it brought new audiences and recognition in the international press.
For the first time, SVU Mánes’ exhibition had a designer in architect Jan Kotěra who focused on simplicity and purity with respect to painting, sculpture and prints.
After a visit to Paris Exposition of 1900, Alfons Mucha and Josef Mařatka invited sculptor Auguste Rodin to exhibit his works in Prague.
Kotěra took on an idea of Paradise with each sculpture displayed in its own space, not competing with the others, with floors covered with gravel and shrubs expanding the garden theme.
This show utterly overshadowed Rudolfínum, making SVU Mánes the main exhibiting body in Bohemia.
This show had a political background of Czech intellectuals looking toward France, appealing to French republican artistic freedom.
Following Rodin’s exhibition, SVU Mánes presented a retrospective of contemporary French painting the Nabis who Czech artists knew since the 1890s from their Parisian visits for their freedom of form and deliberate experiments.
Returning to the domestic art scene, SVU Mánes hosted a retrospective of Joža Úprka.
Auguste Rodin together with Ludwig v. Hofmann exhibited in 1908, followed by SVU Mánes’ group show.
In 1910 SVU Mánes’ presented a group show of sketches: Les Independents; Slavíček; Axel Gellen-Kellela; Munch; and Swedish Art.
Jan Preisler was the only SVU Mánes member who responded to Munch with his painting Woman by a Lake, however after harsh criticism he abandoned this style.
Bohemian Cubists combined Cubism with Expressionism, some with Futurism, Orphism and Rayonism, while others concentrated on national or existential subject matters.
Volné směry reached a wide public, with coverage better than its main competitor journal Moderní revue [Modern Review].
Open debates in Volné směry and other journals considered the planned destruction of Prague’s historical center.
At the turn of the century, a special issue devoted to the Third SVU Mánes exhibition was produced for the first time for Viennese audiences.
Lit from the top, it had movable walls and Karel Špillar adorned it with a patriotic Slavic wooden lintel and allegorical mosaic.
Its location was near the city center, close to a space where Prague officials wanted to build a modern gallery.
