Růžena Zátková

Růžena Zátková (also called Rougina Zatkova; 15 March 1885 – 29 October 1923) was a Czech painter and sculptor. She has been regarded as the "only authentic Czech futurist." As a result of her Bohemian heritage and her decade-long residency in Rome, Růžena Zátková became an important artistic link between Russian and Italian Futurism. Zátková is considered one of the pioneers of kinetic art. Zátková studied music in Prague and also studied under the painter Antonín Slavíček at his private school. She later attended drawing classes in Munich. In this part of her life, Zátková never stopped painting, although her early work consists mostly of Impressionistic landscapes and portraits. Because Zátková never dated any of her works, a precise date of production is unknown. Inspired by Giacomo Balla's artistic use of movement and speed, Růžena Zátková's works are considered pioneering examples of kinetic art. In 1916, when Zátková was ill with tuberculosis, Goncharova dedicated two gouaches to her, which were both rediscovered in 2019.

Zátková never dated any of her works, and the creation of a definitive timeline of her career has proved difficult. Many of Zátková's works have gone missing under mysterious circumstances (including the large lot of artworks left to Arturo Cappa after her death), and a re-examination of her decade-long involvement in the Italian futurist movement is required. In 2011, a reproduction of her missing kinetic sculpture The Pile Driver was displayed at an exhibition in Prague. Two of Zátková's paintings, Marinetti and Water Running Under Ice and Snow, were displayed alongside works by Giacomo Balla and Umberto Boccioni in a 2014 exhibition at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.