ČESKÝ FUNKCIONALISMUS 1920–1940
ARCHITEKTURA / BYTOVÉ ZAŘÍZENÍ / UŽITÁ GRAFIKA
Umelecko Prumyslove Muzeum
[Umelecko Prumyslove Muzeum]: ČESKÝ FUNKCIONALISMUS 1920–1940: ARCHITEKTURA / BYTOVÉ ZAŘÍZENÍ / UŽITÁ GRAFIKA. Prague and Brno: UP Museum & Moravska Galerie, 1978. First edition [all published]. Text in Czech. Quartos. Plain paper perfect bound wrappers. Printed dust jackets. Black endpapers. Unpaginated. Essays with separate photo sections: 109, 118, 58 black and white illustrations. Elaborate graphic design throughout. All three volumes with minor shelf wear, including sun fading, slight creasing, and for edge wear to dust jackets. Interiors unmarked and very clean. Out-of-print. A very good or better set. Uncommon.
(3) 9 x 9.5 soft cover books: Architecture—unpaginated with 109 illustrations, an essay, bibliography, and architects' biographies; Decorative Arts—unpaginated with 118 illustrations of furniture and objects including textiles, ceramics, glassware, and tableware, 15 text illustrations, an essay, and bibliography; Graphics—unpaginated with 58 illustrations, a Laszlo Moholy-Nagy essay, and a bibliography.
Published in conjunction with an exhibition held at the Prumyslove Muzeum and the Moravska Galerie in the fall and winter of 1978.
Artists, designers, and architects include Jaroslav Fragner, Bohuslav Fuchs, Jaroslav Grunt, Jiří Kroha, Antonín Urban, Ladislav Žák, Karel Hannauer, Josef Hrubý, Josef Kittrich, Richard Podzemný, Antonin Tenzer, Pavel Janek, František Maria Černý, Eugen Linhart, J. Havíček, Karl Honzik, Kamil Ossendorf, Jan Gillar, Evžen Rosenberg, Josef Špalek, Jaromír Krejcar, Oldřich Tyl, Adolf Benŝ, Josef Kříž, F. L. Gahurou, Ludvík Kysely, Jan Víšek, Oldřich Starý, Hrubá Skála, Mladá Boleslav, Josef Kranz, Karel Řepa, Jaromír Krejcar, František Čermák, Gustav Paul, Bohumar Čermák, František Lydie Gahura, Adolf Benš, Antonin Heythum, Josef Chocol, Josef Kranz, Thonet, Josef Hoffmann, Marcel Breuer, Mart Stam, Jindřich Halabala, Miloslav Prokop, Antonín Kybal, Jaroslava Vonráčková, Marie Teinitzerová, Božena Pošepná, Marie Serbousková-Sedláčková, Božena Rothmayerová, Ladislav Sutnar, Bohumil Južnič, Helena Johnová, Dina Kuhnová, Jan Lichtág, Julie Horová, Otto Eckert, Ludvika Smrčková, Alois Metelák, Adolf Loos, Joseph Riedel, Josef Inwald, Rudolf Schröter, I. Erenburg, Karel Teige, M. Proust, R. Weiner, V. Nezval, ReD, J. E. Koula, E. A. G. Demolder, Toyen, A. Tschinkel, Z. Rossman, František Zelenka, and František Musika among many others.
The culture of the new-founded state of Czechoslovakia after the First World War was orientated and inspired by the avant-garde movement in the major cities of Europe, especially Paris, Berlin and Amsterdam. The short-lived national movement in architecture termed rondo-cubism was later replaced by the new spirit of White Functionalism, which dominated Czechoslovakian architecture until the beginning of the Second World War and which has subsequently come to be seen as one of the most interesting, though often overlooked, contributions to the International Style.
In Functionalism, geometrically neat shapes and simplicity replaced overstuffing and pointless complexity. Adolf Loos called ornament a crime and Le Corbusier said, “Decorating is of a sensuous and primitive nature . . . therefore it suits the lower classes, peasants and barbarians.“
Functionalism, as an artistic style not only influenced architecture but also applied art, furniture and interiors. The Bauhaus School refined Corbusier’s thoughts and artistic sentiments. Walter Gropius, the Bauhaus’s founder and leader as well as such contemporaries as Marcel Breuer, Hannes Meyer, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Ludwig Hilbersmeier, and others, contributed to a history of high quality and timeless Functionalist design.