Czech Cubism

Czech Cubism (referred to more generally as Cubo-Expressionism) was an avant-garde art movement of Czech proponents of Cubism, active mostly in Prague from 1912 to 1914. Prague was perhaps the most important center for Cubism outside Paris before the start of World War One.

Czech Cubists distinguish their work through the construction of sharp points, slicing planes, and crystalline shapes in their art works These angles allowed the Czech Cubists to incorporate their own trademark in the avant-garde art group of Modernism They believed that objects carried their own inner energy which could only be released by splitting the horizontal and vertical surfaces that restrain the conservative design and “ignore the needs of the human soul” It was a way to revolt from the typical art scene in the early 1900s in Europe This evolved into a new art movement, referred to generally as Cubo-Expressionism; combining the fragmentation of form seen in Cubism with the emotionalism of Expressionism.

Concept
Czech Cubists distinguish their work through the construction of sharp points, slicing planes, and crystalline shapes in their art works. These angles allowed the Czech Cubists to incorporate their own trademark in the avant-garde art group of Modernism. They believed that objects carried their own inner energy which could only be released by splitting the horizontal and vertical surfaces that restrain the conservative design and “ignore the needs of the human soul.” It was a way to revolt from the typical art scene in the early 1900s in Europe. This evolved into a new art movement, referred to generally as Cubo-Expressionism; combining the fragmentation of form seen in Cubism with the emotionalism of Expressionism.

History
Czech Cubism developed between 1911 and 1914. It was a contemporary development of functionalism generated by architects and designers in Prague. Fifteen years later, the first concept of cubism itself was written off as a decorative purpose, a replacement of secessionism and mistaken departure into ‘aestheticism’ and ‘individualism’. On the contrary, it was a revolt against traditional values of realism.

Czech Cubism was first conceal by the Modern Movement and masked by the aesthetic dictates of Stalinist and post-Stalinist culture in Czechoslovakia. After the Velvet Revolution of 1989 and the post modern attraction of ornamentation and decoration, there came to be a rise of fascination in Czech culture and its own unique forms of cubism. Czech Cubism developed paradoxically as both a product of Czech bourgeois affluence and as an avant-garde rejection of secessionist designers such as Otto Wagner and Jan Kotěra. Architects such as Josef Chochol and Pavel Janák devised spiritualist philosophies of design and a dynamic ideal of planar form derived from cubist art. As Cubism spread across the European continent in the early 20th century, its greatest impact can be seen today in the Czech Republic. Pyramid and crystal forms were one of the signature principles seen in Czech Cubism which was incorporated in architecture, furniture, and applied arts.

Czech Cubism was inspired mainly by stays of Czech artists in Paris. He has been active since 1910 throughout the 1920s, mainly in Prague, where the most prominent representatives of the style joined the Mánes Artistic Association. Czech Cubism distinguished itself from the French, became a world-famous and unique mainly because the founders included architects: Josef Gočár, Josef Chochol, Vlastislav Hofman and versatile designer Pavel Janák and among their realization houses. The Czech Cubist architecture is unique, as well as the design of applied art and housing culture, which was promoted by artists in the Prague cooperativeArtel and artists of various professions around Devetsil. Czech Cubism painters were mainly Emil Filla, Antonín Procházka, Bohumil Kubišta, painter and writer Josef Čapek, and Vincenc Beneš briefly. First sculptor: Otto Gutfreund (one of the first Kubo-expressionist sculptors with his 1912 Anxiety). Vincenc Kramář and Václav Vilém Štech performed as art theoreticians.

The basic building blocks of cubism are geometric shapes square, rectangle and triangle, and bodies prism, cube and pyramid. However, they cannot be used alone but combined with curves. After the First World War, too simple a concept lived, the prevailing tendencies of the movement turned to rondo-cubism. These are aesthetically richer and more complex combinations and intersection of existing elements with other geometric shapes such as a circle, an ellipse, a sphere body, a cylinder, or a cone. Opponents called it the style of mannerism “Cubism. Italian futurism, Russian cubofuturism, and machinery have also undergone a similar development. The second faction was aimed at abstraction and was represented, for example, by František Kupka.

Rejection of Vienna Influence
Through admiration and inclination to Parisian Cubism, Czech Cubists diverted partially from the Viennese Art Nouveau and the avant-garde, followed by the Prague School of Applied Arts. Prague as a city of the Austro-Hungarian was in the 80s of the 19th century rather provincial, which did not meet the aspirations of young Czech architects. Older generations of Czechs as well as a large German minority shared the traditions of historicism, both in the Neo-Renaissance architecture (Czech National Theater and New German Theater), Neo-Baroque (apartment buildings, Kramář’s Villa), and reminiscences of folklore. At the beginning of the 20th century, new buildings were built by the avant-garde, based on Viennese Art Nouveau. Geometric Art Nouveaubetween 1905 and 1910 and afterwards, cubism was defined as avant-garde and cultural resistance against them.

Cubism Support
The important role of pioneer and popularizer of Cubism played Vincent Kramar (1877-1960), since 1911 one of the first collectors of Picasso and Braquových Cubist paintings, which traded at an art dealer Ambroise Vollard and Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler. The collection, reliant on the heritage of the National Gallery in Prague, had a significant influence on the development of cubism in Czechoslovakia. Kramar was also in the years 1919 up to 1939 director of the Picture Gallery of the Society of Patriotic Friends of the Arts and author of the first Czech written theoretical file Cubism (1920). July 22, 1921 Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler wrote to Kramář, his customer and friend:

I just regret that in this book, where the name Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler appears on every page, there is no single line I can understand. I would be happy to be translated into the language I speak. I am sure that there is no book in this matter that is as interesting and illustrative as yours.

Post-processing
Although Czech Cubism has only existed for a short time and few have actually been realized in this style, it influenced the later art deco and still serves as a source of inspiration for artists. An example of this are Karel Nepraš’s neo-cubic sentries in front of the Lichtenštejnský Palace.

Members
Members of this movement realized the epochal significance of the cubism of Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque and attempted to extract its components for their own work in all branches of artistic creativity: sculpture, painting, applied arts and architecture.

The most notable participants in this movement were the painters František Kupka (whose interests were rooted more in abstraction), Emil Filla, Bohumil Kubišta, Antonín Procházka, Vincenc Beneš, and Josef Čapek, the sculptor Otto Gutfreund, the writer Karel Čapek, and the architects Pavel Janák, Josef Gočár, Vlastislav Hofman and Josef Chochol. Many of these artists were members of the Mánes Union of Fine Arts. A major division in Czech architecture occurred after 1912 when many young avant-garde artists from Jan Kotĕra and his circle divorced themselves from the Mánes Association. These younger architects were more idealistic in their outlook and criticized the strict rationalism of their forebears, Otto Wagner and Kotĕra. Janák, Gočár, and Hofman founded the group Skupina výtvarných umĕlců (Group of Plastic Artists) and established a journal for the group, Umĕlecký mĕsíčník (Artistic Monthly).

After Czechoslovakia’s founding in 1918, architectural Czech Cubism gradually developed into Czech Rondocubism, which was more decorative, as it was influenced by traditional folk ornaments to celebrate the revival of Czech national independence.

Exhibitions
The Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague (UPM) uses the House of the Black Madonna as a permanent exhibition space for Czech Cubist art.

Architecture
Some architects have been affected by cubism. Cubist architecture on the Czech territory was created thanks to a group of architects headed by Josef Gočár, Josef Chochol, Emil Králíček, Pavel Janák Otakar Novotný and others. Cubist style is unique in the world and nowhere else has Cubist architecture reached such a boom as in the Czech Republic. Later on, more decorative rondocubism, also called Czech art deco, follows Cubist architecture.

Architects:

Josef Gočár – House of the Black Madonna in Prague, Spa House in Bohdaneč
Josef Chochol – Kovařovicova villa in Prague, Vysehrad apartment building in Neklanova street in Prague, trojdům on river embankment in Prague under Vyšehradem
Pavel Janák – Libeň Bridge in Prague, Škoda Palace in Prague
Otakar Novotný – Teaching Houses in Prague
Vlastislav Hofman – The Devil’s Cemetery in Prague
Emil Králíček – Cubist Lantern on Jungmann Square in Prague, Diamond House in Lazarská Street in Prague, Benies Villa in Lysá nad Labem

Rondocubisme
Rondocubism attempts to integrate typical Slavic characteristics into architecture. The national colors are used: red and white. Massive, cylindrical, round, truncated forms are used, close to logs.

The headquarters of Legiobanka in Na Poříčí Street, built between 1921 and 1923, is a monument classified by UNESCO as a unique representation of Rondocubism. Its facade is decorated by Otto Gutfreund and J. Štursa. The stained glass in the hall, as well as the boxes used for pictorial decoration are the work of F. Kysela.

The Adria Palace, built in 1925, by Pavel Janák and a Prague German, Joseph Zasche, on the Jungamanovo naměstí. It was designed for the Riunione Adriatica di Sicurtà insurance company. The carved decoration is due to Jan Šturda and Karel Dvořák. In 1926, at a conference in Prague, Le Corbusier sees in the Adria Palace “a massive construction of Assyrian character”.

The Rondocubist building on Kamenická Street, a Novotný building, in the Holešovice district.

Source from Wikipedia