When the famous Czech traveler, ethnographer, and cactus enthusiast Alberto Vojtěch Frič returned from a recent trip to South America in the summer of 1908, he was accompanied by Čerwuiš, an Indian from the Chamacoco tribe in Paraguay. Venturing into “civilisation”, Čerwuiš was searching for a cure for a parasitic disease that was decimating his tribe, and he actually found it. Here he spent a year filled with Frič’s lectures, earning them both enough money for their return journey. Frič’s friend, the sculptor Vilím Amort (1864–1913), spontaneously decided to create a portrait sculpture of Čerwuiš. He captured him with a feather diadem on his head and a feather necklace around his neck. The bust became an integral part of Frič’s interiors for years and appears in many photographs. In 1913, several plaster and concrete casts were made of it, to be displayed in an ethnographic exhibition that Frič organised in his home. Unfortunately, the original bust could not be borrowed from a private collection and is therefore only presented photographically at GAVU. The exhibition instead features a cast concrete torso that has been preserved in Frič’s family.