Jan Kotěra (18 December 1871 – 17 April 1923) was a Czech architect, artist and interior designer, and one of the key figures of modern architecture in Bohemia.
Jan Kotěra | |
|---|---|
 1923 portrait by Vladimír Jindřich Bufka | |
| Born | 18 December 1871 |
| Died | 17 April 1923 (aged 51) |
| Nationality | Czech |
| Known for | Architecture |
Biography edit
Kotěra was born in Brno, the largest city in Moravia, to a Czech father and German-speaking mother. He studied architecture in Vienna during the waning days of the Austro-Hungarian Empire under the Viennese master Otto Wagner.[1]
Kotěra returned to Prague in 1897 to help found a dynamic movement of Czech nationalist artists and architects centered on the Mánes Union of Fine Arts. Strongly influenced by the work of the Vienna Secession, his work bridged late nineteenth-century architectural design and early modernism. Kotěra collaborated with Czech sculptors Jan Štursa, Stanislav Sucharda, and Stanislav's son Vojtěch Sucharda on a number of buildings.
As a teacher, Kotěra trained a generation of Czech architects, including Josef Gočár, who would bring Czech modernism to its pinnacle in the years leading up to the Nazi occupation in 1939. Kotěra was one of a number of Czech architects to design the "Bata houses" and Bata shoe factory at East Tilbury, Essex, England.[2] These are considered Modernist landmarks of industry and a company town.
Works edit
- East Bohemian Museum in Hradec Králové,[3] (1908–1912)
- Peterka House, 12 Wenceslas Square, Prague (1899–1900)
- National House in Prostějov
- Trmalova Villa - an early rustic villa in Prague[4]
- Villa of Tomáš Baťa in Zlín
- Faculty of Law of Charles University in Prague (1924–1927)
- Two monuments for members of the Perutz family at the New Jewish Cemetery
Gallery edit
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Museum of Eastern Bohemia, Hradec Králové. -
Národní dům (National House), Prostějov. -
Baťa's villa, Zlín. -
Faculty of Law, Prague. -
Bust in Prague.
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References edit
- ^ Pevsner, Nikolaus, Sir James Maude Richards & Dennis Sharp (2000). The anti-rationalists and the rationalists, Architectural Press, p. 106. ISBN 0-7506-4815-5
- ^ Rose, Steve (2006-06-19). "Steve Rose: on East Tilbury the most Modern town in Britain". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2017-11-20.
- ^ Jan Kotěra, 1871-1923:the founder of modern Czech architecture. Municipal House. 2001. ISBN 9788086217475.
- ^ Cultural Movement Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine, Foibos.cz, retrieved 4 November 2013
External links edit
- Works by or about Jan Kotěra at Internet Archive
- Pictures from Hradec Králové museum
- List of works (in Czech)
- summary biography with images a
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