Žena S Vějířem 1917

Editor: We’re looking at Emil Filla’s “Woman with a Fan,” painted in 1917 using oil. The palette is rather muted, almost somber. What stands out to me is how the human form seems fragmented and reassembled. What symbols do you see embedded here? Curator: The fan, first and foremost. Consider its historical use: a tool of flirtation, yes, but also of controlled expression in rigid social structures. Notice how it partially obscures the figure, hinting at secrets, a hidden narrative. In Cubist works, everyday objects often acted as allegories of modernity and the fracturing of perception. Does that resonate with you? Editor: Yes, I see that now. The geometric shapes also suggest a sense of unease, maybe reflecting the turbulence of the time period? Curator: Exactly! Think about 1917. The First World War was raging. Filla, deeply affected, channeled this anxiety through disrupted forms. The fragmented woman could be a metaphor for a society shattered by conflict. Even the subdued colours speak to loss, perhaps mourning. What feelings do the colors evoke in you? Editor: A sense of restraint, almost repression. It makes me wonder what aspects of the figure's personality the artist wanted to emphasize. Or suppress. Curator: And what of the objects? Do the carafe and fruit represent domesticity, disrupted and recast, reflecting the anxieties of wartime existence when so many things had fallen out of orbit and felt… unhomelike? Filla reinterprets the still-life by putting into it tension, but in so doing perhaps reveals an unintended feeling of being unstuck. Editor: So, beyond just a portrait, it’s a coded commentary on societal anxieties and a struggle with cultural shifts. It's amazing how a seemingly simple image can hold so much history. Curator: Indeed. Every fractured plane, every carefully chosen object, builds to a powerful visual statement on identity and societal upheaval.