Emil Filla

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Emil Filla (April 4, 1882 - October 7, 1953) was a leader of the Avante Garde movement in Prague between WWI and WWII and early Cubist painter.

He was born in Chropyně, spend childhood in Brno, but later moved to Prague. Since 1903 he studied at the Prague Academy, but he leaved the school in 1906. He was a member of artists groups such as Octave (in 1907-1908, he painted mainly expresionist works) and the Mánes (since 1909 till his death). After 1909 he painted primarily in the Cubist style, strongly influenced by Picasso and Braque. He created mainly still lifes in that time. Circa 1913, alongside the works of Otto Gutfreund, Filla produced some of the earliest Cubist sculpture produced anywhere. Before the World War I he moved to Paris, but he was forced to escape to Holland later. He moved to Prague after the WW I. Exactly on the first day of World War II he was arrested by gestapo together with painter Josef Čapek and others and later imprisoned in German concentration camps Dachau and Buchenwald. However, he survived, came back home and started to teach at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague. He exhibited mainly the works from the cycle Boje a zápasy (Fights and Struggles) after the war, later created mostly landscapes. He died in Prague and is burried in Střešovice.