Art and Architecture in Prague

After 1945

Postwar ArchitectureReconstruction of monuments

– Betlem Chapel (Jan Hus)– Carolinum (Charles

University)- Emauz Monastery Church,

New Town Betlem Chapel

Carolinum

Socialist RealismHotel

International, 1952-4, Stalin was expected

to visit

Stalin Monument, Letná, 1955;

destroyed 1962

• Return to the „classical values“

• Monumentalising historism• The aim of architecture was

to create a system of architectural forms as political-ideological signs understandable to the working people and „make him proud of his victories and work successes“.

Socialist Realism

Hotel Jalta, Wenceslas Sq.• 1958• Statues on the terasse

– A couple of agricultors with a jug of fresh milk, agricultors huging, agricultors with a sheaf of grain

„Brussels Style“

Expo 58• Great success of the

Czechoslovak pavilion• Laterna Magika first presented

here – Alfréd Radok, Miloš Forman– Acting on the stage and on the

screen at the same time

• Bright colours, inventive use of materials

• Reaction on the socialist realism

Pavilon, destroyed

Restaurant, nowadays at the

Letná park

„Brussels Style“Tramway Tatra T3, the most successful model produced since 1960´s Podolí Swimming Pool, Prague 4

Karel Prager• Federal Assembly, 1966-73

– Used a building from the 1930´s– Use of a bridge girder– Large suspended glass wall

• New scene, National Theatre (Laterna Magika)

• Skewed shape lined with more than four thousand blown glass bricks with diverse profilation – form together a huge relief. Unique use of glass.

• Strict elegance, non-decorativeness, comfort

Federal Assembly

New Scene

Architecture of the 1970´sUnderground, since 1974- Nusle Bridge

- Stability threatened by heavy soviet trains

- Anděl- Reliefs with socialist topics

Colonies of prefabricated houses- 1950´s, 1960´s Prosek,

Petřiny - 1970´s, 1980´s, Southern

and South-Western Town

Kotva Shopping Mall

1970-5, Hexagons interconected by escalators

Malich

Karel Malich (born 1924)

• Kinetic sculpture• Use of wires since 1970´s

Me and the One I am Meeting, 1976-1980

„I sit in a café, I have turned my head slightly to the left“, 1970´s - 1980

Veselý

Aleš Veselý• Sharp agressive

objects in 1960´s• Nowadays

monumental sculpture – use of tree truncs, huge pieces of rock, steel

• Land Art – Project in the Negev Desert

• Please visit: http://www.ales-vesely.cz/

Chairs, 1960´s

Theodor Pištěk : Hyperrealism

Theodor Pištěk : Hyperrealism

Theodor Pištěk : Hyperrealism