What is Czech Cubism?
Sharp points, slicing planes, crystalline shapes. These are the trademarks of the Czech Cubists – a unique, avant-garde group, feverishly active in Prague between 1910 and 1914. As well as fine art, they left behind them building facades prickling with little pyramids, furniture bursting with energy, and decorative objects dynamized with stark black lines. Four young, multi-talented designers, trained in the ateliers of leading rationalist architects Otto Wagner and Jan Kotera, were behind the bulk of Prague’s Czech Cubist legacy. Inspired by the revolutionary work of Braque and Picasso, and urgently seeking a new style that would be their own, Pavel Janak, Josef Gocar,Josef Chochol and Vlastislav Hofman adapted the painters’ cubist principles, and stretched them not only to another dimension, but also to everyday life. This is the best-known Cubist work of Josef Chochol. Hodek Apartment House 1913 – 1914, Neklanova 30 Praha 2 The Czech Cubists believed that an object’s true internal e
