Art for Good New Life for Exhibitions Zdenek Rykr and the Chocolate Factory

Zdenek Rykr and the Chocolate Factory

Note on the circumstances of publication
125 years ago, on October 26, Zdenek Rykr was born, a painter of many styles, "a philosopher and advertising executive who was one of those jack-of-all-trades who could do anything he set his mind to." With few exceptions, he wrote the introductions to his exhibitions himself, "and so well that no intermediary could have served him better." The exhibitions were said to be even more interesting. Rykr was constantly searching for the form and style of his artistic expression, and his experiments were ahead of their time. For example, "from paper, wood, cloth, and many other ingredients, he created (...) a colorful extravaganza that has its own rhythm in terms of both content and form and captures the impression and enchantment we experience in Loreto or Karlov. His work spreads an atmosphere similar to that of the Voskovec and Werich revue, where you enjoy not only what is presented, but also the thought of how little boredom the authors must have felt when composing it." (The quotations used are from the February 1936 issue of Eva, a magazine for educated women).

Unfortunately, during the Nazi occupation on January 15, Zdenek Rykr voluntarily left this world at the age of 39. He became known to the wider public thanks to art historians Jindřich Chalupecký and Vojtěch Lahoda. This year, Vojtěch Lahoda would have turned 70. We are honored and delighted that in this double anniversary year we can revive the Zdenek Rykr retrospective, supplemented with commentary and texts by the aforementioned art historians and works that did not fit into the original exhibition at the National Gallery. The exhibition Zdenek Rykr and the Chocolate Factory took place in 2016, but its publication on artforgood.cz was complicated by personnel changes at the National Gallery and the acquisition of all the necessary consents from the owners of the works of art and reproductions. First and foremost, we would like to thank the following for their helpful cooperation: Vojtěch Lahoda in memoriam, Eva Lahodová, the then manager of the NG Marcela Straková, the then curator of the NG Lenka Pastyříková, the then director of the Chotěboř Museum Adam Rosa, and graphic designers Luboš Drtina, Tomáš Machek and Luděk Kubík.

Reproductions for the new life of the Chocolate Factory exhibition were kindly provided by: the National Gallery in Prague, the Chotěboř Municipal Museum, Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague, Prague City Gallery, Gallery of the Central Bohemian Region, Kutná Hora, Gallery of Modern Art in Roudnice nad Labem, Regional Gallery in Liberec, Gallery of Modern Art in Hradec Králové, Olomouc Museum of Art, Benedikt Rejt Gallery in Louny.
(In Prague, October 26, 2025 Pavlína Bartoňová)

National Gallery in Prague, Trade Fair Palace
27. May 2016 - 28. August 2016
Concept originator Vojtěch Lahoda and curator Lenka Pastyříková

The work of Zdenek Rykr (1900⁠–⁠1940) is attractive due to its intentional resignation of a single style mode. This painter, still somewhat neglected, produced expressionist, realist and cubist works, but also worked in the spirit of neo-classicism, sensual realism, neo-fauvism, abstraction and surrealism and created collages and assemblages, as well as sculptures and objets d’art. He was simultaneously conservative and avant-garde. Rykr is also attractive in his oscillation between modern art and advertising activity. In 1921 he began designing packaging and publicity flyers and posters for the firm of Maršner-Orion, later just Orion, one of the largest manufacturers of chocolate and confectionary in Czechoslovakia between the wars. The sophistication and originality of the packaging of Orion chocolate was unrivalled at its time, as was the long-term activity of the artist for the firm of Orion right up to 1939. Rykr’s “invention” of the Orion chocolate star, the cord lettering of the name Orion and the motif of the blackamoor on the packaging of the famous Kofila chocolate bar all testify to the unbelievable abilities of this young self-taught artist. Čedok, Káva Kulík, the Horch car plant of Germany, Dr. Zátka, Škoda and Baťa were other companies in the promotion of which Zdenek Rykr participated.

Rykr was a skilful draughtsman and caricaturist, who contributed to the satirical periodical Trn (Thorn), wrote feuilletons, which he frequently also illustrated, and edited the periodical Domov a svět (Home and the World). He was unusually successful both in advertising and in free creativity, but also as an art critic and journalist. As early as in 1921 he was exhibiting as a self-taught artist and student with the famous Tvrdošíjní group of artists and in the thirties he exhibited in Paris in the Salon des Surindependents. He also played a significant part in the exhibition of the Spa Industry in the Czechoslovak Pavilion of architect Jaromír Krejcar at the World Exhibition in Paris in 1937. Likewise linked with the interesting and widespread work of Zdenek Rykr, however, is the powerful personal story of a commercially successful artist who was, in spite of this, an outsider on the art scene. Under the pressure of the occupation of Czechoslovakia by Nazi German Rykr committed suicide in 1940. The exhibition in the Trade Fair Palace presents Rykr’s work in its full breadth and entirety. The blurring of the boundaries between high and low and between individual stylistic tendencies shows that the work of Zdenek Rykr continues to be topical.

Author: Vojtěch Lahoda

Curator: Lenka Pastýříková

In cooperation with: Regional Museum in Kolin and organization CEKUS Chotěboř, City Museum

Main partners of the exhibition: Orion, Nestlé

Supported by: Ministerstvo kultury ČR

General partner of the National Gallery: Komerční banka

Partner of the exhibition: National Film Archive, The Institute of Art History of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic

General media partner: Česká televize

Main shipper: Czech Railways

Media partners of the exhibition: Týdeník ECHO, EXPRES FM

Media partners: Český rozhlas, Art & Antiques, Flash Art, ArtMap, PRAGUEEVENTSCALENDAR, ART+, The Museum Channel, Art for Good New Life for Exhibitions.

Exhibition plan

Files

Zdenek Rykr

26. 10. 1900 - 15. 1. 1940

Zdenek Rykr is one of the most interesting members of the 1920s generation. He attracted a lot of attention in 1921 with his cubist paintings, but then he followed a different path than others in Bohemia and remained almost completely alone. He was a great painter and a great intellect, and he had an almost clairvoyant sense of the development of modern art. What he tried in 1930-1940 only became fully comprehensible ten and twenty years later. He rehabilitated the 1930s meaning of Impressionism and was inspired by Oriental calligraphy like the Paris School after 1945; he combined assemblages with painting like Rauschenberg in the 1950s between 1934 and 1935 and anticipated the Pop Art of the 1960s with his objects assembled from discarded things; he began in 1936, ten years before Dubuffet, with "art in the raw" and in 1939 he was interested in pure visual effect in a similar way to what is happening today in the so-called "art of the raw". He lived to be only thirty-nine, however, and his work remained a torso. After a few fragmentary commemorative exhibitions, the Liberec Regional Gallery provided the first opportunity for an overview of Rykr's entire work to be exhibited. It was twenty-five years after Rykr's death: this is the fate of modern art in Bohemia.

Jindřich Chalupecký, 1965
In: Catalogue to the exhibition, Zdenek Rykr Overview of his works 1900-1940, Liberec Regional Gallery

1900

He was born on 26 September in Chotěboř No. 488 at the railway station. The name Zdenko Josef is recorded on the baptismal certificate. His father Otakar was a clerk of the North-Western Railway, his mother Antonie was a daughter of the C.K. Provincial Court. The family lived in the building of the Chotěboř railway station.

1907

The Rykr's family moved to Kolín.

1917

Rykr exhibited in the window of Šindelář's bookshop a drawing Promenade on Kolín Square, which allegedly outraged fellow citizens of Kolín, whom he caricatured.

1919

Rykr graduated from the Real Gymnasium and unsuccessfully attempted to gain admission to the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague. Until 1920 he worked as a tutor for the son of Count Prokop Lažanský in Chýše pod Krušnými horami. He created a poster for the Kolín company SFK - Kolínská obuv je nejlepší (Kolín shoes are the best) (S. Feldmann Kolín).

1920

Designed posters for the German car company Horch Werke AG and for the Kolín kerosene refinery. He was strongly influenced by the exhibition of Bohumil Kubišta. At the Kolín Youth Club, where he worked alongside Černík, Funke, Janík and Václav Navrátil, he exhibited 60 paintings and 38 drawings, mostly landscapes, but also several versions of Oplakávání Krista (The Lamentation of Christ) and Jidášův polibek (The Kiss of Judas). Rykr passes through the expressionist period, he puts great emphasis on colour expression, gradually the influence of Cézanne and cubism, especially Bohumil Kubišta, begins to prevail in his painting. In the autumn, he began studying art history and classical archaeology at the Faculty of Arts of Charles University in Prague. As a painter he was an autodidact.

1921

He exhibited in Prague as a guest at the Third Exhibition of the Tvrdošíjný. He was considered one of the leading personalities of his generation. The graphic magazine Veraikon devoted a special issue to him (VII/9-12). At that time, however, Rykr had already abandoned cubism for descriptive realism. Rykr agreed to a letter from the First Czech Joint Stock Company of Oriental Confectionery and Chocolate Factories in Královské Vinohrady, formerly A. Maršner, to produce designs for advertising items and posters by the end of 1921. He travelled to Germany and was dazzled by Edvard Munch's exhibition.

1923

He painted pictures of "colourful expressionism with a primitive flavour" (J. Rambousek), realistic watercolours from the Polabí region during the holidays and nostalgic, dusky landscapes modelled in autumn.

1924

He passed his doctorate in classical archaeology. He exhibited at the Krasoumna Jednota in Prague. Travelled to Paris with the painter Oldřich Kerhart. From 1924 he went to Paris almost every year for one or two months.

1925-1926

He travelled to Corsica and toured Spain. He sent reports of his travels to Práva lidu with drawings of Chapters from his travels.

1927

Painted female figures in negligee in the spirit of sensual realism (paintings called Jiřina), published reproductions in the magazine Home and World. He painted motifs from Kolín (sugar factory, factory) in the spirit of raw realism.

1928

Painted the culminating image of the "hygienic" painting Staircase (National Gallery in Prague). He collaborated with the humorous monthly magazine Trn.

1929

Jindřich Chalupecký characterised Rykr's work (1964). At the end of the year, he returns again to sensuous "neo-Fauvist" painting. Orion wins a number of awards for its products at the World Exhibition in Barcelona. The grand prix was awarded to Kofila chocolate with Rykr's wrapping. It travels to Germany.

1930

From the strictly constructed paintings of the late 1920s, he moves to rapidly line-drawn paintings, which follow the neo-Fauvist tendency of the time and often resemble oriental calligraphy. In the course of this period, the structure of the painting becomes more complex, the painting becomes denser and more substantial, while at the same time the painting is stripped of any residual illusiveness. Rykr's thematic base remains Prague and the Czech countryside. Rykr married the writer Milada Součková. He created one of the most successful posters Rhythmic Gymnastics Courses of the Jacques Dalcroze School in Prague.

1931

Exhibition in Topič's salon. Neo-Fauvism culminates, in some cases not far from the contemporary expression of Josef Čapek.

1932

Rykr and Součková visit Mallorca. He exhibited in Topič's salon and with the Association of Artists in Prague.

1933

Rykr became editor of Orion's magazine Chocolate World. He painted the most abstract pictures.

1934

He traveled with his wife to Holland and Belgium, and also stayed in Paris. At his own expense, he organized the exhibition Pryč (Gone) in the Danube Palace in Voršilská Street. He painted symbolic and mysterious paintings Pryč!, Amor and Psyché, as well as the surrealist-influenced V docela nových domech (In Quite New Houses).

1935

The couple visited Greece. Cooperation with the Baťa brand began, which led to the establishment of an art gallery in Zlín. At the World Exhibition in Brussels, Rykr designed the Orion exhibition in the Czechoslovak Pavilion. A number of the company's chocolates with Rykr's wrappings won Gold Prizes there.

1936

He stopped making assemblages and returned fully to painting. He exhibited in the Topič Salon. Creates promotional posters for the development of tourism in Czechoslovakia for the Ministry of Trade.

1937

He concludes his retrospective exhibition at the Krasoumna Jednota in Prague with a set of symbolic pictorial compositions inspired mainly by the Czech countryside. In June he was in Paris for the installation of the Orion company and the tourism section of the Czechoslovak pavilion at the World Exhibition. He became a member of the Salon of the Supernumeraries (Les Surindépendants) and exhibited in Paris in the autumn. He painted images of rural myth and his first paintings with historicizing environments (Interior, City).

1938

Exhibition at Galerie l'Equipe in Paris with Maurice Estève, Fedor Loevenstein, Alfred Pellan and Geza Szobel. Visits London, Vienna and Budapest. He resigns from Orion and subsequently signs a permanent contract from 1 January 1939. He responded to the national catastrophe with a large body of symbolic paintings and drawings with elegiac and religious themes.

1939

He turned away from the thematically and symbolically demanding work of 1936-1939 in the linocuts with which he accompanied his wife Milada Součková's poetic composition Mluvící pásmo (The Talking Band), to compositions made of coloured surfaces, aiming for a pure optical effect. He became a member of the board of directors of the company PIRAS a.s. (Promotional, Inserting, Advertising and Publishing Joint Stock Company), later becoming a director. He created the series of Elegies and paintings Bathroom (Žena v koupelně – Woman in the Bathroom).

1940

He created the last drawing from the series Bathroom.On 15 January at quarter to twelve, Zdenek Rykr committed suicide on the railway line under Barrandov in Prague. The funeral took place on 20 January in the Strašnice crematorium. The urn with the ashes was placed in the Vinohrady cemetery, section. XLIII, grave no. 252.

Exhibitions

Zdenek Rykr and the Chocolate Factory

I am achieving such freedom that there is no material I cannot use. Only now am I becoming an artist in the true sense of the word, i.e., someone who creates truly new things.

Národní galerie v Praze Veletržní palác

May 27, 2016 - Sept. 28, 2016

The work of Zdenek Rykr is attractive due to its intentional resignation of a single style mode. This painter, still somewhat neglected, produced expressionist, realist and cubist works, but also worked in the spirit of neo-classicism, sensual realism, neo-fauvism, abstraction and surrealism and created collages and assemblages, as well as sculptures and objets d’art. He was simultaneously conser… more

Panorama I Visit

1900

1906

1919

1920

1921

1922

1924

1925

1926

1927

1928

1929

1930

1932

1933

1935

1936

1937

1938

1939

1940

Panorama II Visit

Zdenek Rykr a Továrna na čokoládu

Zdenek Rykr and the Chocolate Factory

Wrappers of Orion chocolate, 1920s and 1930s

Wrappers of Orion candy, 1920s and 1930s

Wrappers of Orion chocolate, 1920s and 1930s

Wrappers of Orion candy, 1920s and 1930s

Wrappers of Orion chocolate, 1920s and 1930s

Wrapping Paper, 1920s and 1930s

Zdenek Rykr
Wrappers of Orion candy, 1920s and 1930s

Wrappers of Orion chocolate, 1920s and 1930s

Wrappers of Orion candy, 1920s and 1930s

Wrappers of Orion chocolate, 1920s and 1930s

Wrappers of Orion candy, 1920s and 1930s

Wrappers of Orion chocolate, 1920s and 1930s

Wrapping Paper, 1920s and 1930s

Wrappers of Orion candy, 1920s and 1930s

Wrapping Paper, 1920s and 1930s

Wrappers of Orion candy, 1920s and 1930s

Wrappers of Orion chocolate, 1920s and 1930s

Wrapping Paper, 1920s and 1930s

Panorama III Visit

What Charlie did not see, but you will

Gone!, 1934

Petroleum Refinery in Kolín. Auto – Petrol, Oil, Grease, 1920

Petroleum Refinery in Kolín. Petrol, Petroleum, Diesel Oil, 1920

The Fifth Carnival: Beautiful Spain, 1927

The All-Student Festival in May, 1927

Self-portrait, 1922

Panorama IV Visit

Chyše

Chyše (Still Life), 1920

Landscape, 1920

Landscape around Chyše (with Telegraph Pole), 1920

Self-portrait, 1916

Dusk, 1919

Landscape with Red Path, 1920

Self-portrait, with brush and palette, 1920

Still Life with Bottle and Carafe, 1920

Still Life with Lemon, 1920

Portrait od Jaromír Funke, 1920

Portrait of a Man, 1920

Jaromír Funke

Head, 1922

Without title, 1923

Cubist Nude by Zdenek Rykr, 1922

Without title, 1923

showcase 1A

showcase 1B

Hugo Sonnenschein, 1919

Panorama V Visit

Kolín

Urban Island, 1926

Factory Quarter, 1926

Square with the Monument of Jan Hus, 1926

Old Jewish Cemetery, 1926

Interior of the St Bartholomew Church, 1926

View of Zálabí from the Railway Station, 1926

The Elbe region, 1926

Brickworks near Kolín, 1926

Labe Regulation, 1926

Forest in Polabí, 1922

Landscape, 1921

Landscape, 1927

Alley, 1931

Landscape, 1925-1926

Railway Bridge, about 1923

Factory, 1927

Stand ("Kandelábr"), 1929

Cubisms and realisms

Portrait of Saint Jarmila in a hat, 1921

Portrait of Saint Jarmila, 1922

Fishermen (Three Figures), 1920

Still life with a Bottle

Girl with a Cigarette, 1922

Cutting Firewood, 1919

Zdenek Rykr
Figure, 1919

"JyA", 1919

Tod, 1920

Panorama VI Visit

Tvrdošíjní and guests 1921

Staircase, 1928

untitled, undated

Portrait of a Young Lady with Hat, 1920-1921

Landscape with Hare, 1934

The Village in February (Chestnut Trees), 1932

Agitated Composition, 1932

Composition with Flowers (In the Morning in June), 30s

The February Sun above the Townlet, 1933

The Sun on a Freezing Day, 1932-1933

Panorama VII Visit

Spain, Majorca and Corsica: Fateful places

Street in March, 1931

Landscape on the Island of Majorca, 1932

Village, 1932

Panorama VIII Visit

Village Scene, 1936

Interior, 1937

Czech Countryside, 1936

Painting fever

Orient 1935 – Rhodes

From Greece, 1935

The Orient, 1935

Orient (Red rose), 1935

Orient (old title From Greece - Composition with pebble), 1935

The Orient (old title From Greece), 1935

The Orient (old title From Greece - Color pebbles)

Orient (Pebbles), 1935

The Orient

Panorama IX Visit

Water Mill in Spain, 1926

Romeo and Juliet directed by Hilar in the National Theatre

Stage design for the play Romeo and Juliette by W. Shakespeare, 1924

Theatre

The Great Art of Midwifery (Death of Socrates) by Robert Walter, 1928

Stage design for the play Shadow by Dario Nicodemi, 1931

showcase 2A

showcase 1B

Panorama X Visit

The purity of theatre

Scene with the tent for a play that was not performed by F. Hebbel Judith, 1936

showcase 3A

showcase 3B

Trn magazine and journalistic drawing

Cover for the journal Thorn, 15.1.1928

Suburb Fever, 1925

New Prague bridges, National Liberation, 19.2.1928

Exhibition, 1927

Prague, The Czech Word, 23.11.1928

Tonda Svízel ... You, You're a Father, A Zet, 27.11.1928

The Bad Conscience of Z. Rykr

From the trip to the Canary Islands

Suburb

Reconstructions of lost sculptures by Zdenek Rykr, 2016

Figures from the cycle The Countryside, assemblage, terracotta, 1936

Glass, assemblage and drawings with country motifs, 1936

Monstrance and reliquary, 1936

From the Countryside, 1936

From the Countryside (present state), 1936

Panorama XI Visit

Orion, the chocolate factory

Credentials of Zdenek Rykr by chocolate factory, 1921

Founder of the chocolate factory František Maršner

The first Czech joint stock company of oriental confectionery and chocolate factories A. Maršner

Orion Vinohrady

Orion brand history

Zdenek Rykr and Orion

Magazine Chocolate World 1, 1933

Magazine Chocolate World 2, 1934

Magazine Chocolate World 2 (Easter shop), 1934

Magazine Chocolate World 2 (Dumb salesman), 1934

Wrappers of Orion chocolate, 1920s and 1930s

Wrappers of Orion candy, 1920s and 1930s

Wrappers of Orion chocolate, 1920s and 1930s

Wrappers of Orion candy, 1920s and 1930s

Wrappers of Orion chocolate, 1920s and 1930s

Wrappers of Orion candy, 1920s and 1930s

Wrappers of Orion chocolate, 1920s and 1930s

Wrappers of Orion candy, 1920s and 1930s

Wrappers of Orion chocolate, 1920s and 1930s

Poster and advertising

Rhytmic Gymnastics Lesson in the Prague School of Jacques Dalcroze, 1932

Design of poster for the car factory Horch, 1920–1921

Design of poster for the car factory Horch, 1920-1921

Three designs of poster for the car factory Horch, 2020-2021

showcase 4B

Eye-catcher HIAWATA PALABA, cca 1935

Zdenek Rykr
VITRINA_PANO_12 - zostreni.JPG

Eye-catcher RADIO PALABA, cca 1937

Wrapper of Palaba batteries, 1936-1938

Wrapper of Palaba batteries, 1936–1938

Advertising signs for the Palaba company, 1936–1938

Panorama XII Visit

Wrappings HIAWATA PALABA, HORUS PALABA a ZLATÁ PALABA, cca 1935

Excelsior Palaba. Perfect Battery, cca 1935

Karmelitka Liquor, 1935

Kulík coffee, the coffee of our grandmothers, 1930

Prague – the City of Arts, 1937

Prague, 1937

Prague – Rome of the North. Czechoslovakia, 1937

Prague, 1926

Panorama XIII Visit

Reconstructions of lost objects by Zdenek Rykr, 2016

Fame, 1934

1933–1935 Abstraction, surrealism, symbolic realism, assemblages, objects

Holland II, 1934

Holland VI, 1934

Holland I, 1934

Holland III, 1934

Holland IV, 1934

Holland VI, 1934

Panorama XIV Visit

The Chalupecký group

Bechyně: Church Motif, 1933

Bechyně: Knightly Motif, 1933

Spain, 1933

Knights 1937–1939

Knight and Lady, 1937–1938

Lady in the Window (Prague), 1938

Day and Night, 1937–1938

Knight, Woman and Death, 1938

Panorama XV Visit

Knight, 1939

Les Surindépendlants in Paris 1936–1938

Composition with Candle Holder, 1937

Composition, 1937

Knight and Dragon (Composition with Dragon), 1937

Elegy, 1939

Composition (Two Figures and Eye), 1938

Composition (Monster-Knight – Dragon), 1939

Knight and Dragon, 1937

Panorama XVI Visit

The countryside myth

Two Women, 1936

Horses, 1936

Countryside, 1936

Roosters, 1936

Smithy, 1936

Rural Scene (In the Yard), 1936

Glass, 1936

Glass (Bohemia, Birds), 1936

Glass (Bohemia, Church Houses and Figures), 1936

Glass (Bohemia, Three Figures and Rye Corn), 1936

Glass (Three Figures and Houses), 1936

Glass (Bohemia, Animal under the Tree, 1936

Glass (Bohemia, Black Figures), 1936

1936 The Czech countryside

Cows, 1936

Agricultural Tools, 1936

Panorama XVII Visit

Elegies 1938–1939

Calvary, 1938

Sad Painting, 1939

Painting (Elegy, Tombstone), 1939

Painting (Elegy V), 1939

Painting (Tombstone), 1939

Panorama XVIII Visit

The Talking Zone

The Talking Zone, 1939

Bathroom

Composition, 1940

Woman with Ball, 1939

Composition, 1939

Woman with Ball, 1939

Composition with Net, 1939

Woman in the Bathroom, 1939

Woman in the Bathroom, 1940

Woman in the Bathroom, 1939

Bathroom (Last Painting), 1940

Woman in the Bathroom, 1939

Composition, 1939

Composition with Lavabo and Glass, 1939

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Art for Good - New Life for Exhibitions

Zdenek Rykr and the Chocolate Factory

Zdenek Rykr and the Chocolate Factory

Exhibition plan

Files

Zdenek Rykr

Exhibitions

I am achieving such freedom that there is no material I cannot use. Only now am I becoming an artist in the true sense of the word, i.e., someone who creates truly new things.

Národní galerie v Praze Veletržní palác

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