Czech Cubism (Architecture)

What was Czech Cubism in architecture?

Czech Cubism is a Prague architectural style of the years around the First World War that applied the faceted geometry of Cubist painting to buildings. Archiweb, the Czech architecture database, says it brought broken surfaces into architecture and created a dynamic play of light and shadow. Its best-known building is the Dům U Černé Matky Boží (House at the Black Madonna) on Celetná Street in Prague, by Josef Gočár. The Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague (UPM) calls it the first implementation of Cubist architecture. Radio Prague reports that Cubist architecture exists almost only in Czechia.

Where did Czech Cubism come from?

Archiweb names Pavel Janák, Josef Gočár, Josef Chochol and Vlastislav Hofman as the pioneers of the style. Gočár was born in 1880 in eastern Bohemia. He moved to Prague as a teenager to study at the State Technical School, according to Radio Prague. He joined the Cubist Group of Visual Artists in 1911. Radio Prague says that his first major building in the style, the House at the Black Madonna, was inspired by Picasso.

The UPM says that Gočár was 31 when he designed the house for the wholesaler František Josef Herbst. It dates construction to 1911 to 1912. Prague's tourism portal dates the building to 1911 to 1912 in its introduction and to 1912 in its history section. The Czech heritage catalogue (Památkový katalog) calls it a Cubist new building of 1912 and the first monumental realisation of Cubist architecture in Prague.

What does a Czech Cubist building look like?

A Czech Cubist building breaks the smooth wall into angular, faceted surfaces. The style often concentrates on a few elements and not on the whole building. In the House at the Black Madonna, the UPM names four elements. They are the entrance portal, the dormer windows, the wrought-iron entrance grille and the staircase balustrade. The table lists these elements and adds the Kovařovic villa.

Element	Where the sources show it	Building
Entrance portal	UPM	House at the Black Madonna
Dormer windows	UPM	House at the Black Madonna
Entrance grille	UPM	House at the Black Madonna
Staircase balustrade	UPM	House at the Black Madonna
Garden, fence and outdoor staircase	Prague tourism portal and Archiweb	Kovařovic villa
Interiors	Archiweb says they contain many Cubist elements	Kovařovic villa

Which buildings and architects defined the movement?

Gočár is the architect most linked to Czech Cubism, and his House at the Black Madonna is the building most often named. Josef Chochol designed the Kovařovic villa below Vyšehrad. Archiweb gives its address as Libušina 3, and the Prague tourism portal gives Libušina 49/3. Both date it to 1912 to 1913. Archiweb says it stands on the site of a former Schwarzenberg brickworks and has three storeys. The tourism portal says that the builder Bedřich Kovařovic built it and that it is private and not open to the public.

Radio Prague dates Gočár's early modernist works to 1910 and 1911, and it names the Wenke department store in Jaroměř among them. After the Cubist years he designed the Legiobanka on Na Poříčí Street in Prague (1921 to 1923). He also designed the Anglobanka on Masaryk Square in Hradec Králové (1922 to 1926). Radio Prague calls the Legiobanka Rondocubist and says Gočár later adopted the Functionalist approach.

Building	Architect	Built	Notes
House at the Black Madonna, Celetná Street, Prague	Josef Gočár	1911 to 1912 (UPM)	Oldest Cubist house in Prague. National Cultural Monument since 1 July 2010
Kovařovic villa, Vyšehrad, Prague	Josef Chochol	1912 to 1913	Three storeys, with a Cubist fence, garden and interiors. Private house

Is the House at the Black Madonna a protected monument?

Yes. Government Regulation 50/2010 Coll. of 8 February 2010 declared the house a national cultural monument, according to the Památkový katalog entry. The Prague tourism portal gives the date from which it holds this status as 1 July 2010. The catalogue entry is for house number 569 in the Old Town and gives the registry number 362. The status is comparable in purpose to a listed building, so any plan to alter the house starts with the heritage authorities. This glossary found no protection status for the Kovařovic villa in a source it opened, so it states none.

How did Czech Cubism end?

Radio Prague quotes Rudolf Břínek saying that Cubism ended with the start of the First World War. He adds that Art Deco came in the 1920s. Archiweb says that Czech Cubist activity can be bounded by the years 1911 to 1923. The sources therefore disagree on the end date, and the later date reflects the overlap with the years that followed. The UPM exhibition page describes Czech Cubist interior design as running from 1911 to 1914 and overlapping until the early 1920s.

After 1918, when the Habsburg Empire crumbled, Gočár and Janák led the development of a national style to celebrate independence. Radio Prague says it became known as Rondocubism. Gočár later moved to Functionalism, which this glossary covers under Czechoslovak Functionalism.

How is Czech Cubism different from Rondocubism?

The two styles share architects and a common geometry, so people often treat them as one. Radio Prague says that Rondocubism took the edge off Cubism. It softened and rounded the cubes and pyramids of Cubism, in the spirit of Slavic folkloristic tradition. The table compares the two as the sources describe them.

Feature	Czech Cubism	Rondocubism
Period	About 1911 to 1914. Archiweb gives 1911 to 1923 for Czech Cubist activity	From 1918, after independence
Form	Broken, faceted surfaces	Cubes and pyramids softened and rounded
Inspiration	Cubist painting	Slavic folkloristic tradition
Architects named	Janák, Gočár, Chochol and Hofman	Gočár and Janák
Example	House at the Black Madonna	Legiobanka on Na Poříčí Street, 1921 to 1923

Where can I see Czech Cubism today?

The House at the Black Madonna holds the Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague. Its permanent Czech Cubism exhibition fills the second and third floors, according to the UPM. The Kovařovic villa is a well-known example, but it is private and not open to visitors. Owners and developers of older Prague buildings should check heritage status first, because it limits what the owner can do to a building.