Růžena Zátková was an inspired artist, one of the most fascinating yet largely unknown artists of the early twentieth century. Růžena was a sympathetic and soulful artist, a nostalgic heart for the past and a keen eye set on the future. Though she would only grace this world for a short amount of time, her legacy will endure for centuries to come.
Růžena Zátková was born in Southern Bohemia, Czechoslovakia (present day Czech Republic), in 1885 to a well-to-do family. It was the benefit of wealth that she was privileged with personal art lessons. She and her sister both studied art, a rare privilege for young girls at the time.
At the turn of the century the family would move to the capital of Czechoslovakia, Prague. This is where Růžena's art studies would become more serious and her passion for the craft would become cemented in her soul. It was in Prague that Zátková would receive personal tutorship from the Impressionist Antonín Slavíček, later traveling to Munich for even further training.
For ten years Zátková would struggle to make a name for herself on the art scene; the art world was a hugely male dominated industry at the time and there were very few women who studied art even fewer who earned notoriety. Růžena was a talented artist, there was no dispute, but her Impressionistic style was too old fashioned for the times, making it hard for her to break into the art scene and gain recognition.
But in 1910, at the age of 25, Růžena would marry a wealthy Russian Czarist diplomat with a passion for
the arts. Her new husband was a diplomat to Rome and was very well connected in the art community there. The two would travel to Italy where Růžena would find herself in good company among the Italian Futurists.
In Italy Zátková would become acquainted with the artists of the Futurist movement including Giacomo Balla, Filippo Marinetti, & Humberto Boccioni. Through her husband she would also befriend Natalia Gončarova and Michail Larionov as well as composers Prokofiev & Igor Stravinsky. When Růžena saw the works of the Futurist’s she was inspired & decided that this is what she was going to do. From this point on, Rose would be known as a Futurist. Marinetti would even end one of speeches with, "In the name of Růžena Zátková, long live Futurism!" Her impact on as well as her inspiration from the Futurists is quite apparent.
The Futurist movement started sometime in the early 1900s and lasted up through the 1920s. The main focus of the Futurists was to somehow capture the mechanized world and the new technologies of the century, the airplane & automobiles, in art. Their main goal was to create art that embodied motion. At this time in history art was all about breaking barriers and developing new styles. Other art movements that developed around this time was Fauvism, Cubism, Dadaism, and Surrealism.
The Futurists main focus was the incorporation of motion in the modern world, but they also had other things in mind as well. The Italian painter Giorgio de Chirico once said this about the direction art would need to take in this age of change:
"It is most important that we should rid art of all that is has contained of recognizable material to date, all familiar subject matter, all traditional ideas, all popular symbols must be banished forthwith. To become truly immortal a work of art must escape all human limits: logic and common sense will only interfere. But once these barriers are broken it will enter the regions of childhood vision and dream."
Růžena Zátková was an unlikely candidate for the Futurist movement. The Futurists were well know for their glorification of war & nationalism as well as their scorn for women. But while Růžena was called a Futurist she never really conformed to the Futurist ideologies.
Zátková's inspirations and influences are quite unique when comparing her to other Czech artists of her time. While most artists were traveling to Paris for art training, Růžena was studying in Munich and Rome. Though her husband she would come into contact with various different art forms as he was an avid collector. Růžena would be influenced by Impressionism, Symbolism, Primitiveism, Russian folk art, and of course Futurism. Růžena was also fascinated with the bizarre and occult. She participated in séances and produced a few psychic drawings inspired by her occult experiences.
While Růžena Zátková was under the influence of Futurist art, creating abstract and nonobjective art, she was still moved by Impressionist landscapes and objective nature art. Růžena practiced different art styles simultaneously; while she was creating abstract, nonobjective art she was also working in naturalistic forms. Her work took a unique parallel structure rather than a linear course. While most artists make transitions in a linear direction, moving from one style to the next, Zátková was working many different styles at the same time. This is what set her apart as an artist. While the Futurists were capturing the modern world of machines, Růžena was capturing both nature and the modern world using the same stylized concepts as the Futurists.
Though she was well connected in Futurist circles, Růžena struggled to make herself known in the art scene. But her big break would finally come in 1916 when her Futurist sculpture, Ram, was displayed in a gallery. This sculpture would put Růžena Zátková name on the map. Though she did not actually use her real name in the exhibit. In her early exhibits she wished to be known only as Signora X.
With the debut of Ram Růžena now had a place among the Futurists, but she still struggled as a female
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artist to become known on the larger scale art scene. But at the end of World War I women in Europe began to gain more rights. It was in this atmosphere that Růžena Zátková would make her move.
As early as 1914 Růžena Zátková befriended the Cubo-Futurist and Blau Reiter member Natalia Gončarova, a forerunner in the European feminist movement. Natalia was a known feminist and an expert on how to live as a female artist. Růžena Zátková connection to Gončarova surly opened the door to her future as an artist and as a feminist. Although Zátková was not as publicly active as her Russian friend, she practiced feminism in her own form, much like her artistic style. Růžena, rather than taking outward action, focused her power internally. She thought that by focusing on her own life and goals she might set an example to other aspiring female artists to follow in her footsteps and take charge in the male dominated world. Růžena Zátková once said this about her "female fate" and her struggles as a female artist:
"Why is my female fate so strange, constantly outside of any order of life? Both married and single, a mother through a miracle, yet soon separated from my daughter, alone with my art that is hardly art at all, with my love bound to live far away from me. Now I understand: my star orders me to stay out of any centre and my extreme kindness, or weakness, makes me isolated. In the absence of a refuge out there I have created my own inside me. It is well founded: I have built it on proper foundations of my childish belief, cementing it with my own blood. A little garden outside, where a few real flowers have grown, has been watered with my tears. I want to keep building, to build incessantly, to grow ever stronger and to deserve life."
At the end of WWI Růžena Zátková was finally receiving the credit she deserved. In the early 1920s she ban to organize her own solo exhibits to be held in Berlin and back home in Prague, a place she had not seen since her departure in 1910. However, her sister did not think her art would go over well with the Czech public as the dominant art form there was Cubism. In a letter Růžena's sister would actually say that she could not understand Růžena's art and advised her not to show in Prague. Sadly, Růžena would never return to Prague, and neither solo exhibits would never happen.
In the summer of 1916 Růžena Zátková traveled to Spain to be with Gončarova, Larinov, and the troupe of the Ballets Russes. During the trip Růžena fell ill and feverish, her husband suspected tuberculosis and rushed her to a sanitarium in Leysin Switzerland. She would stay in the sanitarium until 1919. It was at this time that Růžena became very aware of her own mortality and she took a step in a more religious direction.
Zátková would suffer from bouts of tuberculosis from 1916 up until her eventual death from the illness in 1923; Rose never would make it back Czechoslovakia. During her sickness she would sometimes have to take time away from her work to spend time for convalescence.
Though Růžena Zátková died before she could show the world her full potential, she left her mark in the world as not only an artist and women’s rights advocate, but also as a loving spiritual person. Her unique artistic style is unlike that of any other artist. She has given the world beautiful art and memories through her life’s tale. She inspired Europe’s women to take up their paintbrushes & make a stand, and she paved the way for them to gain their equal rights in the world as people. Rose may be gone, but her art and ideals will live on for millennia to come. "In the name of Růžena Zátková, long live Futurism!"
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