Architecture of Prague: Architecture and fine art of the early twentieth century. Paintings in this style
Mainly in France ( prominent representatives are P. Picasso, H. Griss and J. Braque), as well as in some other countries.
What is Cubism?
Let's try to answer this question. Cubism is a special artistic movement, the language of which is based on the deformation of objects, their decomposition into geometric planes, and a shift in shape.
The main idea on which it was based was an attempt to express all the complexity and diversity of the surrounding reality with the help of the simplest spatial models and forms of phenomena and things. The emergence of this trend changed many established principles and aesthetic ideas in European painting. Representatives of Cubism broke with “optical realism”, abandoning nature as a subject of fine art, perspective and chiaroscuro as the only
Pablo Picasso
For this painter, throughout his entire creative path It was typical to work in several styles at the same time. Picasso alternately resorted to completely opposite ways of expressing his worldview.
In his work one can find both cubist painting, bordering on abstractionism, and realism. Sometimes in his searches he departed so much from traditional classical fine art that his return to the path of realistic creativity seemed unthinkable. However, the artist created stunning portraits and still lifes in the cubist style. These were realistic works, written in an inimitable, individual manner. The traditional ones that the author used served to solve modern problems. One of the first paintings painted in the Cubist style is a painting by P. Picasso. It is distinguished by its unusual grotesqueness: it depicts rough figures without elements of chiaroscuro and perspective, presented as a combination of decomposed volumes on a plane.
Characteristics
The French critic L. Vaucelle first used the term “cubist” in 1908 as a derisive name for artists who depict reality using correct geometric volumetric figures(cylinder, cone, cube, ball). Such creativity contained a challenge to traditions realistic art. Paintings in the Cubist style were distinguished by their inclination towards asceticism of color, towards tangible, simple forms and elementary motifs (for example, utensils, wood or house). This trait is most clearly manifested in his early work during the “Cézanne” period (1907-1909). The artist P. Cezanne emphasizes the stability and objectivity of the world; faceted volumes, which he uses as a tool for conveying an image, form a semblance of relief, and colors highlight certain edges of objects, simultaneously enhancing and crushing the volume. The next stage in the development of Cubism is “analytical” (1910-1912). The object is broken into small parts that are easily separated from each other, and its shape seems to be spread out on the canvas. The last, “synthetic” stage (1912-1914) is more decorative, paintings become colorful flat panels, some textured elements appear - three-dimensional structures, stickers (collages), powders... At the same time, cubist sculpture was born. Picasso and Braque often included certain letters or words in their paintings. These inscriptions, as a rule, did not correspond to the content, but they helped visitors to exhibitions to approximately understand the artist’s intention.
Viewer reaction
The public treated the work of the Cubists with irony, sometimes even bestowing unflattering epithets and ridicule on them. The press published harsh criticism, sometimes approaching a public scandal in nature. Viewers who found themselves at an exhibition of Cubist paintings experienced sensations that can be compared to the feelings of a person who was about to go on a pleasant trip, but instead received an invitation to take part in breaking new ground.
This reaction confirmed that the transition to this direction occurred rapidly, despite the long preparatory period, during which the capital’s audience would have to significantly expand their horizons. Nevertheless, cubism itself and paintings written in this style appealed to a certain part of the audience and found support among patrons of the arts.
The influence of cubism on art
This direction greatly influenced the development of creative thought. Cubism in art reflected new trends in life in all its versatility and inconsistency: the desire for democratization - recognition of primitivism, rejection of the individual, private, chamber; faith in science - the desire to create a “grammar of art”, the search for objective methods.
Today, every open-minded person, admiring the works of the Impressionists, clearly distinguishes the conventions of colors familiar to us. And at the time of its inception, it seemed to everyone that Cubism was a real revolution in art. It is this direction that analyzes all existing components of painting. The shape of the image, color and volumes become conditional.
Cubism in Russia
In the era preceding the emergence of Cubism, in our country, as in France, interest in folk, traditional art increased. At this time, young Russian artists were characterized not only by an interest in “primitive” art (including African), but also by a longing for strict inviolability, architectural composition, as well as a belief in a certain regularity and mathematical nature of rhythmic experiences.
Cubism occupies a certain place in the work of many Russian artists (Chagall, Lentulov, Arkhipenko, Altman and others). However central figure, of course, is Kazimir Malevich. His pedagogical activity and creativity, as well as theoretical work, had a huge influence on the formation of the whole movement.
"Black square"
It may seem that there is nothing simpler than drawing a black square on a white background. Probably anyone can portray this. But here’s a mystery: this painting by the Russian artist Malevich still attracts the attention of researchers and art lovers, although it was created at the beginning of the last century. Like something mysterious, like a myth, like a symbol of the Russian avant-garde...
They say that the artist, having painted "Black Square", did not understand what he had done, and for a long time I could neither eat nor sleep. In fact, difficult work was done to bring this painting to life. After all, when you look at it, under the cracks the lower layers become visible - green, pink, apparently there was some kind of color composition, but the author considered it invalid and wrote a black square on top of it. This work of art was designed in the Cubist style. Malevich’s paintings were varied, but he himself believed that it was “Black Square” that was the pinnacle of his creative activity.
– you had the opportunity to get acquainted in the previous sections. For the third time, Czech architecture rose above European architecture in the first four decades of the twentieth century - during the period of dominance of Art Nouveau, Cubism, Purism and Functionalism.
On the facade of the bank of the Czechoslovak Legion is located sculptural group“Adria” (“Seafaring”) by sculptor Jan Stursa. The details of its origin are shrouded in mystery, so the exact name is unknown. This is the largest sculpture in the world made using the electroforming method.
The creative wave, first of all, captured Prague, which in 1918 became the capital of the young Czechoslovak Republic. Of course, valuable architectural examples were created at that time in other cities of the Czech Republic and Moravia, such as Brno, whose interwar functionalist architecture can be compared with Prague, Frankfurt and Rotterdam, Hradec Králové - the fruit of the joint creativity of the architects Kotera, Gočar and the then mayor of the city Frantisek Ulrich , and Zlín, where Le Corbusier himself came to fulfill orders in the 1930s.
In the last thirds of the XIX century there was a rapid multiplication of building types. The appearance of arcades, department stores, bank buildings, multi-story buildings dates back to this period. apartment buildings, stations, as well as buildings of a completely new type that arose as a result of the industrial revolution. After the wave of national revival, during the period of dominance of historicism, new impulses appeared in architecture, largely thanks to the industrial, economic and socio-political development of society.
The initial stage of architecture of the 20th century in the Czech Republic was the Art Nouveau style, which stood out for its bright anti-eclectic orientation and became the first style after classicism to gain such a scope in the architecture of Europe and lay claim to the formation of fundamentally new artistic ideals and concepts.
The monument to Jan Hus, a striking example of the Prague secession, was opened in 1915. The master is surrounded by figures embodying different emotions. “Running” depicts submission, “Meditation” and “Concentration” - with eyes closed and wide-eyed, “Rejection” expresses bitterness over an unfulfilled dream.
In parallel with the Czech secession and modernity in other European countries similar directions arose, having their own specific features:
in England - Arts and Crafts, later - Modern Style
in Germany – Jugendstil
in France – L’Art Nouveau
in Austria – Secession
in Russia - the Art Nouveau style with its own varieties (for example, in St. Petersburg - northern modernism)
This internationalization of style was associated, first of all, with the cosmopolitan nature of the culture at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries and the general social and spiritual situation of the late 19th century.
In the 1910s, Czech architects came into direct contact with the European avant-garde. As a result, innovative trends are permeating architecture. Architecture Czech cubism was perhaps the only manifestation of how this artistic movement had a direct influence on the architecture of the pre-war years, thereby becoming a local phenomenon on a European scale. Cubist architecture developed primarily over a period of four years, from 1910 to 1914. In the course of the evolution of this movement, art historians divide it into two stages - Cubism proper and arched decorativism, or Rondocubism (French rond - round). Moreover, there are a number of disagreements regarding the second stage. Some researchers present it as the ideological opposite of Cubism itself, others - as new level development of cubism. It must be noted, however, that in post-war years style developed under the influence new wave neoclassicism in European art and the actively developing fashionable Art Deco style.
With the radical changes introduced into all spheres of social life by the political events of the 1920s, such trends as constructivism and functionalism appeared in architectural thought, which aimed not only to reflect the changes that had occurred through architectural form, but to radically change the appearance of cities, and thereby make changes to the very organization of life and society. The main idea of these directions is, first of all, the feasibility of the building, its compliance with the functions it performs. That's why characteristic elements there are bare facades, devoid of “excessive” decorativism, strip windows, and expedient spatial arrangement.
Prague Secession
The Secession style arose in Vienna in the 90s of the 19th century. The origin and name of the movement are associated with the Secession (Care) group, which included young artists who decided to break with the art traditions of previous generations. At the turn of the century, a new worldview appears, in which the world of developed technology and fading romanticism are intertwined.
At the same time, new artistic directions, united in thought, but with their own characteristics and different names. In Germany it is Art Nouveau, in Vienna and the Czech Republic it is secession, in some other countries Western Europe- Art Nouveau; in countries Soviet Union all these areas are united under common name– modern. Especially many works of architecture in the Art Nouveau (northern) style, close to the Secession, can be seen in St. Petersburg: this is the passage on Liteiny Prospekt, the Kshesinskaya mansion, a considerable number of apartment buildings.
The main feature of modernist movements is harmony, a balance between aesthetics and expediency.
In Prague, the exponent of the transition period from historicism to secession was the architect B. Ochmann, and the birth of the Czech secession is associated with the name of the “father modern architecture» Jan Kotera. Kotera was a student of Otto Wagner, a professor at the Vienna Academy of Arts who led the Austrian architects. Secession fit perfectly into the traditions of the national artistic culture Czech Republic.
After 1900 – i.e. After the rapid development of Prague, the Secession style firmly took its place in the architecture of the capital of the Czech Republic. Buildings in the Secession style began to complement the appearance of the city and create it the new kind. During the first decade of the 20th century, this style became a manifestation of the mood of Czech society, taking the place of the Neo-Renaissance. Architecture, sculpture, and painting best reflect the change in the Czech mentality that occurred at the junction of two eras. If in the era of the Prague Neo-Renaissance the main objects had a demonstrative sound, then during the secession period large objects of an obviously proclamatory nature were no longer created, but the style comprehensively covered entire blocks and streets, giving the city a new, truly Czech look. Secession managed to create a stylish and comfortable living environment.
In Prague you can see not only pure 100% secession buildings. Facades and interiors of a large number of houses architectural style- neo-Renaissance, neo-Gothic or neo-Baroque - were complemented by extraordinary, symbolic and innovative Secession decor. It depended on the character of the developer, his financial situation, special requirements and the ability of the artisan to create decor, copying the creations of famous architects.
At the same time, in Prague it is impossible to find two houses with exactly the same design. On the contrary, builders and decorators, among whom were many famous architects such as O. Polivka, Jan Kotera or B. Bendelmayer, realized their imagination with unique skillful ingenuity at a high artistic level.
Many Prague houses have preserved not only their original Secession exteriors, but also a considerable number of original interior elements: window engravings or mosaic inserts, doors and carvings above doors, floor mosaics, paintings and ceramic mosaics on the walls, corner decoration, elegant apartment signs, elegant stair railings and stucco decoration of the halls. Most of The marble facings of the entrance parts were created by unknown craftsmen with taste, ingenuity and true skill. Many of the architects, sculptors and builders studied in France, Austria, and Germany, where they drew inspiration to bring something new to Prague, bringing it closer to the image of Western modern cities.
Czech cubism
Czech Cubism is a short-lived but unique movement born around 1910 in Prague, when avant-garde designers began applying the principles of Cubist painters to architecture, furniture and decorative objects.
The style that came from the West (France: Picasso, Braque), the scope of which developed in the field of fine arts, found application in the Czech Republic in a more complete scope and concrete manifestation of the theory on creativity (Janak, Gočar), mainly in the field of architecture.
In 1910-1925. this style gave rise to a number of innovative architectural objects, which seemed to be composed of geometric shapes and crystalline structures.
Czech cubism is an interesting stylistic phenomenon, the specificity of which is its comprehensive coverage of all spheres of art.
The style manifested itself not only in the architectural design of a number of objects or the design of building facades, but also found a place in various fields of art, including sculpture and applied arts, as well as in comprehensive solution interiors with the development of collectible furniture and elaboration of stylish details.
Czech cubism had no analogues in world architectural creativity. It was a collective movement with a theoretically developed program. Art program Czech cubism, which emerged in 1910, included the theoretical principles of the architect P. Janak, who formulated the requirements of dynamism.
The most famous representative, founder and supporter of Czech “architectural cubism” (at a certain stage of his work) is Josef Gochar; his realized cubist objects from concept to the last detail are resolved in stylistic unity.
In avant-garde art one of the main artistic movements the beginning of the twentieth century is cubism (from the French “cube” - cube). This direction in art involves the use of emphasized geometric shapes to depict real objects and objects. This primitive art, perceiving the world around him through geometric forms, and striving to “split” it into separate stereometric elements.
As a new movement in painting, cubism arose in 1905-1907 and its appearance is associated with the names of such French artists as Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, they are the founders of cubism and its most well-known representatives. The term "Cubism" was coined after Georges Braque's reaction to critical article art critic Louis Vauxcelles, who called the artist’s series of paintings “cubic oddities.”
Cubism in painting
(Paul Cezanne "La Montagne Sainte Victoire Cezanne")
It is believed that the origins of Cubism were laid French artist Paul Cézanne, who in a letter to a young artist Pablo Picasso recommended viewing the world around him as a collection of different geometric shapes- cylinders, squares, cones, spheres. Following the advice of Cézanne, and also being impressed by the art of depicting African masks, in 1907 Picasso created his first painting, painted in the Cubist style, “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon” (bold, chopped lines, pointed corners, virtual absence of shadows, neutral tone, close to natural).
(Pablo Picasso "Bread and fruit dishes on the table")
Canvases in the Cubist style are distinguished by their two-dimensional, flat appearance; they are replete with a large number of different geometric shapes, different lines, sharp corners, and the color scheme at the same time is made in modest, neutral tones. A cubist artist does not view an object or object from any one specific angle, but tries to split it into separate elements, and then puts the resulting parts into one single whole.
(Pablo Picasso "Girl on a Ball")
There are three stages in the formation of cubism as a separate movement in avant-garde art:
- Cezannovskaya. The initial stage of formation, objects have an abstract and simplified form. Picasso is greatly influenced by the works of Cézanne, he creates his “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon” and meets with Georges Braque;
- Analytical. The images of objects gradually disappear, the differences between form and space are erased, iridescent colors appear, without a clear arrangement, intersecting behind translucent planes. This is noticeable in the works of Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso in 1910;
- Synthetic. The third stage of formation, new followers join the Cubists spanish artist Juan Gris, French poet Guillaume Appolinaire and American writer Gertrude Stein. Gris's paintings reject the third dimension in fine art and place emphasis on the texture of the surface with the help of which a new object is constructed.
(Paul Cezanne "Pierrot and Harlequin", a painting combined with impressionism)
Most famous paintings Painted in the style of cubism, are the paintings of Paul Cézanne “Pierrot and Harlequin”, Pablo Picasso “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon”, “Three Masked Musicians”, Georges Braque “Mandora”, “House at Estaque”, Juan Gris “Fantômas”, Fernand Léger "The Lady in Blue", "Builders".
Cubism in architecture
The first buildings of cubist architects were not built primarily in Paris (there, in 1912, at one of the exhibitions, a model of a house made in this style), and in Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic, which at the beginning of the twentieth century became one of the largest centers for the popularization of Cubism. Here you can find works by such outstanding cubist architects as Pavel Janak, Josef Gonchar, Vlastislav Hoffmann, Emil Koalicek, Josef Chochol.
(Cube houses by architect Piet Blom)
The most outstanding buildings in the cubist style are located in Rotterdam (Netherlands), here in the 80s, according to the design of the architect Piet Blom, an entire residential complex was built, consisting of cube houses, their main distinguishing feature is that all walls (except those in the middle) are located under angle. The houses have three floors, the first is a room for receiving guests and a kitchen, the second is a bedroom and a bathroom, on the third (a glass roof on top) I usually place a greenhouse, a children's room or an office.
Looking at photographs of buildings built in the 20th century, I am reminded of Borges’s metaphor of the “garden of forking paths.” It’s not customary to read Borges now, so I’ll take on the terrible task of retelling the thought of a genius. He suggests imagining that every time a person is given a choice, he chooses not just one, but all of them at once. possible options, while reality bifurcates or triples (according to the number of choices made). Quantum mechanics makes a similar assumption (see “many-worlds interpretation”).
“There are moments in history when the world seems to be presented with several options for the future.”
There are moments in history when the world seems to be presented with several options for the future, and it hesitates, not knowing which one to prefer (here it is worth looking at the collection of short stories by Stefan Zweig “ Finest Hours humanity"). The idea that history could have turned out differently is a tantalizing thought. This is not about alternative history(no matter how good inventors Nosovsky and Fomenko are, they always lose, since the reality they describe is limited by the boundaries of their texts, and true story rich in endless details) - I'm talking about those cases when the world really could have moved in a different direction. And since he could actually do this, it means that the alternative path has some reality, albeit incomplete, but real. It seems that we dimly discern the features of another modernity, looking at it through some kind of veil, and if we move it and press our face more closely to the keyhole, we can see a little more.
Raymond Duchamp-Villon and others. Cubist house. 1912. Fragment
Andre Marais. One of the rooms in the Cubist House
Josef Holol. Cubist house in Prague, 1912
Josef Chochol. Cubist house in Prague, 1913
Josef Chochol. Villa Kovarovich in Prague, 1913
Joseph Gochar. House black Madonna in Prague, 1912. Fragment of the facade
Joseph Gochar. House of the Black Madonna in Prague, 1912. Lamp in a cafe
Joseph Gochar. House of the Black Madonna in Prague, 1912. Cubist coat hooks in a cafe
Joseph Gochar. Villa Bauer in Libodřić, 1914
Emil Kralicek. Street light in Prague, 1914
Armchairs by Pavel Janak in the Museum of Cubism in Prague
Otokar Novotny. Pavilion of the Czech Republic at the exhibition of the German Werkbund in Cologne, 1914
Milevsko, Czech Republic. Former New Synagogue. 1914
But if we can penetrate at least with a glance into another modernity, it means that something from there can come to us. It is possible that part of our everyday life are aliens from “out there,” objects behind which there is another causal series. The late buildings of Gio Ponti seem like these things to me. This is the architecture of modernism, but no other kind of modernism. There is too much show, too much form. This architecture has other roots. And recently I realized which ones.
The architecture of classical modernism was not created on the first try. Its appearance was preceded by several unsuccessful experiments. The largest of them is Cubist. Cubism is one of many artistic movements of the early 20th century, but its creators had larger ambitions. They thought that cubism was a new style era, which means universal style, common to all types of art. They almost succeeded in creating Cubist architecture. With absinthe, I think they started talking about Cubist music, but little progress was made in this direction.
“Cubism is a new style of the era, which means it is a universal style common to all types of art”
Raymond Duchamp-Villon and others. Cubist house. 1912
Cubist architecture got off to a spectacular start. At the Autumn Salon in Paris in 1912, a team of authors exhibited a large, 10 by 3 meters, model of a “Cubist house.” The facades were designed by the sculptor Raymond Duchamp-Villon; the interiors of the rooms (it seems that they could be seen by walking around the model and looking from behind) were done by several people, among whom the main one was Andre Mare. The rooms were fully furnished, and small paintings by cubist artists hung on the walls. After Paris, the “Cubist house” was shown at the Armory Show in New York.
The first buildings of cubist architects immediately appeared. But not in Paris, but in Prague, the largest center of Cubist art outside of France. They were built in a short period of 1912 - 1914. architects Josef Chochol, Josef Goczar, Pavel Janak, Otokar Nowotny and some others. In addition, during these three years, Czech architects created quite a lot of Cubist furniture and interior items.
Cubist architecture is avant-garde, and at the same time strikingly traditional. We see in it all the same symmetrical facades, pediments, hatches, portals as in the buildings of past years; only subjected to characteristic triangular pixelation. These are like Art Nouveau mansions seen through the eyes of Robert Delaunay. Cubist architecture did not subject total denial past experience. She only proposed to decorate the facades of buildings that remained structurally the same with new ornaments.
Bauhaus Manifesto, 1919. On the right is the engraving “Temple of Socialism” by Lionel Feininger
Walter Gropius. Villa Sommerfeld in Berlin. 1921
Walter Gropius. Villa Sommerfeld in Berlin. 1921. Interior. Stair railing - Jost Schmidt, chairs - Marcel Breuer
Walter Gropius. Villa Sommerfeld in Berlin. 1921. Doors
Josef Albers. Stained glass of Villa Sommerfeld in Berlin. 1921
Nikolai Ladovsky. Communal house project. 1920
Walter Gropius. Monument to those who fell in March. Weimar. 1921
Erich Mendelsohn. Hat factory in Luckenwald. 1923
Hans Poelzig. Administration building in Hannover. 1923. Fragment of the facade
Ferdinand Chanu et al. Store in the Oviatt Building in Los Angeles. 1927 - 1929. Canopy-lamp above the entrance
Ernst Paulus and Ludwig Paulus. Evangelical Church of St. Cross in Berlin, 1927 - 1929.
Ernst Paulus and Ludwig Paulus. Evangelical Church of St. Cross in Berlin, 1927 - 1929. Interior
Joseph Franke. Church of St. Cross in Gelsenkirchen. 1927 - 1929. Interior
Jean Doucet's mansion in Neuilly-sur-Seine, 1929. József Csáky's staircase. Photo by Pierre Legrain
William Van Allen. Chrysler Building. NY. 1930. Portal fragment
Timothy Pfluger. Paramount Theater in Oakland, USA. 1931.
Czech Cubism was fleeting. After World War I, the same architects, now citizens of the independent Czechoslovak Republic, returned to the profession; but their buildings were already different. Having played enough with triangles, in the 20s they fell in love with semicircles and cylinders. What they created during this period is called Rondocubist architecture. It is not at all similar to their pre-war buildings.
This is where the history of Cubist architecture ends. It all fit into the three pre-war years. But its individual motifs are often found in buildings built in subsequent decades.
Ferdinand Chanu et al. Interior of a store in the Oviatt Building in Los Angeles. 1927 - 1929
It is known that cubist artists greatly influenced the formation of the Art Deco style. Actually, they were the authors of this style. André Marais, who designed the interiors of the 1912 Cubist House, became a popular designer of Art Deco furniture after the war. At the famous Paris exhibition of 1925, he and Eugene Sue designed two pavilions. The most important interior of French Art Deco - the furnishings of the house of Jacques Doucet in Neuilly-sur-Seine (1929) - was created by a whole team of cubist artists. At the same time, of course, the vocabulary of Art Deco is not limited to Cubist motifs. This style drew from many sources.
In addition, Cubist painting also changed. The “analytical” cubism of the 20s is not at all similar to the painting of pre-war exhibitions, which subjected reality to a monotonous triangular deconstruction. It is all the more surprising that in Art Deco architecture motifs of pre-war angular cubism are often found - we notice them in the lamps built into the ceiling of the Oviatt store in Los Angeles (1928, architect - French Ferdinand Chanu), in the ceilings of the Paramount Theater in Oakland (1931, architect Timothy Pflueger), etc.
Numerous movements in painting of the 20s, arguing with each other for the right to be the successors of Cubism, almost all used its techniques in one way or another. Its crushed, crystalline forms are the common property of all avant-garde painting of that time. We find these motifs, in particular, in the paintings of the Expressionists; as well as in buildings built by German expressionist architects. From a formal point of view, some of these buildings (for example, Mendelssohn's Luckenwald factory and Sommerfeld's house in Berlin, an unsurvived masterpiece of the young Bauhaus professors) can rightfully be called Cubist. However, in the Sommerfeld house they also see a strong influence of Wright.
Frank Lloyd Wright. Meeting hall of the First Unitarian Society in Madison. 1949 - 1951
Frank Lloyd Wright. Car service in Cloquey, 1958
Milanese architects of the second half of the 20th century were cramped within the framework of the modernist canon, and they all violated it in one way or another. The most famous architect of Northern Italy, Gio Ponti (he began in the 20s as a moderate classicist) in his later buildings suddenly turned to the experience of cubism, which had not previously interested him. In his Venezuelan villa Planchard, the cornices and facades are broken, their pieces, like ice floes, creep on top of each other, and in some places you can look at the facade plane, thin as a sheet, from the end. It was as if the villa was frozen and then hit with a hammer and it split. In the church of San Francesco a Foppopino and the cathedral in Taranto, Ponti recalls the experience of the German Expressionists, who subjected Gothic motifs to Cubist geometrization.
“The Cubists reformed art and did not aspire to more”
Cubist architecture is a failed project. And it's easy to see why. In the mid-20s, the founders of " modern movement» developed new principles of architecture, reinvented it from scratch. In the early 10s, the Cubists just figured out how to decorate it in a new way. The modernists were seriously building a new, unprecedented world, a paradise on earth. The social ambitions of the Cubists were limited to the dream of a wealthy collector. The Cubists reformed art and did not aspire to more; the modernists turned the world inside out. This task is more interesting. That is why both German expressionist architects (though not all) and Czech cubists (all) in the mid-20s, easily forgetting the experience of previous years, enthusiastically began to build white houses with screen windows and flat roofs. And this direction dominated architecture for thirty years, spread throughout the entire planet and determined the appearance of the environment in which the majority of humanity still lives. But all this time he seemed to be accompanied by the ghost of cubist architecture, hiding in the semi-darkness, in the folds of history, and from time to time peeking out from there, as if trying to live out his life, which was cut short too early.
The birthplace of cubism was Paris, where it emerged as a movement in fine art in 1907 with the easy inspiration of Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. The basis of this modernist direction there was a desire to split objects into conventional geometric forms. The founders of Cubism proclaimed the cube to be the main physical fitness, and works composed of cubic figures were called more expressive and rich.
A few years later, cubism reached the Czech Republic, and later became a real phenomenon in Czech architecture. Czech Cubism developed in a unique way in a very short period: from 1911 to 1914. The force with which he influenced decorative arts and architecture in the Czech Republic is unparalleled in Europe.
Before the First World War, Prague was a significant center of the avant-garde, and Czech artists were influenced French creativity began to promote a new style under the universal name “new art”. The official year of the emergence of Czech Cubism is considered to be 1911. It was then that the Group of Cubist Artists was founded, whose main protagonist was. The core of the Group was the sculptor, writer and painter, artists Vinzenc Benes and, architects and designers Pavel Janak, Josef Goczar, Vlastislav Hofman, and others.
Emil Filla, "The Artist"
First general exhibition Czech Cubists in the Public House took place in 1912 and caused sharp criticism public. The Group's second exhibition in the fall of the same year was the culmination of the general activity of the Cubists. Works by Czech authors were presented together with paintings by contemporary French and German artists in an unusual architectural installation by Josef Goczar. At the next Prague exhibition, the sources of inspiration of the Cubists were shown: foreign and folk art, exotic and rare works of art 15-17 centuries
Czech cubists exhibited abroad several times. Main international event was their participation in the exhibition of the Werkbund in Cologne, where a complete interior from the Prague art workshops was presented with furniture by Josef Gočar and accessories by František Kisela.
Poster for the Cubism exhibition in 1912, czkubismus.cz
The authors themselves called cubist furniture “serious art of solid content”: this was said in the program manifesto of the Prague Art Workshops, founded by the architects Pavel Janak and Josef Gočar. Cubist furniture was not particularly popular: it was “ordered” for themselves by the creators themselves or their friends in creative or intellectual circles. The complex design of architecture and interiors in the Cubist style was only an exception.
czkubismus.cz
Soon the Cubists began working with relatively easy-to-work ceramics and metal objects. The glass took on more broken shapes. And yet, following the model of the German company Wiener Werkstätte, at the instigation of Vaclav Vilem Štěch, the arts and crafts studio Artěl was founded in 1908, which set as its goal the cultivation of art and good taste in Everyday life. Ceramics and glass from Artel began to sell well.
czkubismus.cz
The most striking manifestation of Cubism - - occupied an absolutely unique place in the European context. In no other country has this style reached such a scale as in the Czech Republic. Local architecture began to acquire cubist features in a rather radical form even before the First World War and outside the Group. To the very striking examples include projects for the monument to F. L. Riegra or the sculpture of Jan Zizka on Vitkov. Unfortunately, most of the most daring works remained on paper.
The architect Pavel Janak implemented the most cubist ideas. But almost all of them were residential buildings outside Prague. Prague's first cubist building - trading house At the Black Mother of God (1911-12) - suggested by Josef Goczar, who was only 31 years old at the time. A bold cubist reconstruction was carried out by the architect Vlastislav Hofman during the renovation of the Devil's Cemetery buildings.
House of the Black Mother of God, Prague
The ideological differences between representatives of Czech Cubism gradually deepened. The breakup of the Group was precipitated by the outbreak of the First World War in 1914.
Although the Cubist period in the Czech Republic was very short, it influenced Czech art for a long time. Orthodox cubist forms eventually turned into a kind of synthesis of cubism and expressionism - cubo-expressionism, which was embodied in graphic design, posters and book illustrations.
In 1918, a new direction began to develop in the architecture and design of the Czech Republic - Rondocubism, which is called a peculiar business card Czechoslovakia. Ideologically, he supported the official movement decorative arts and architecture, declaring the artistic identity of young Czechoslovakia.
Adria Palace, Prague
Rondo-Cubism broke the rules of classical Cubism by using curved shapes and details. For example, if you look at the main attraction in the Rondocubist style - the Adria Palace in Prague (architects Pavel Janak and Josef Zasche, 1924), you will see few pure square and rectangular shapes.
Find out more about this interesting direction in art and architecture you can attend, which takes place in the cubist House of the Black Mother of God. Here you can not only see the works of outstanding Czech Cubists, but also visit the only cafe in the world in a Cubist style, Grand Café Orient (look at the chandeliers and the bar counter). This cafe operated for 10 years, and then was destroyed due to people’s loss of interest in Cubism. Recently, the interior of the cafe was restored, and everyone can again travel back to the beginning of the twentieth century.