Jakub Hauser

The Presidential Portrait That Never Was: Alexander Archipenko, Devětsil and the Ukrainian Émigré Community in Interwar Czechoslovakia

In 1923, shortly before relocating from Berlin to the United States, the sculptor Alexander Archipenko visited Prague on the occasion of his monographic exhibition organised by Devětsil in the House of Artists, the seat of the Krasoumná jednota (Fine Arts Union). This visit left its mark on the activities of the local Ukrainian community, specifically in the form of unrealised plans by the Ukrainian Public Committee, an exiled local organisation, to commission a bust of President T. G. Masaryk. Against the background of the differing receptions of Archipenko’s work in the local Czech- and Ukrainianlanguage milieu, this contribution examines the motivations and history of the initiative, thereby probing the limits of the support that First Republic institutions extended to the Ukrainian minority.

Author's email:

hauser@pamatnik-np.cz

DOI: https://doi.org/10.54759/ART-2025-0405



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