Czech Cubism

The Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague’s permanent Czech Cubism exhibition presents it as a style that extends across fine art, applied art and architecture. The individual pieces of furniture and entire suites on display, together with furnishings and items made of ceramic, glass and metal, provide an overview of the creativity of Czech Cubism’s most important exponents. They include the architects and designers Pavel Janák, Josef Gočár, Josef Chochol, Vlastislav Hofman, Otakar Novotný and František Kysela, as well as Cubist paintings by Emil Filla, Bohumil Kubišta, Josef Čapek and Václav Špála, and sculptures by Otto Gutfreund. Contemporary and period photographs of Prague’s Cubist and Rondo-Cubist buildings and interiors document Cubism’s influence on architecture.

In the interactive zone, visitors can sit in replicas of Cubist chairs. The museum’s An ordinary chair or a precious object for display? worksheets invite visitors to explore these chairs from new perspectives. To accompany the exhibition, a printed guidebook and a map of Prague’s Cubist architecture are both available at the House at the Black Madonna. Interactive information at the exhibition includes a timeline of events, profiles of prominent Cubists, contemporary caricatures and critical reviews, archival photos of exhibitions held by the Group of Fine Artists, and items made by the Prague Art Workshops and the Artěl art cooperative.

The House at the Black Madonna was Prague’s first Cubist building. Originally a department store, it was designed by Josef Gočár and built in 1911–1912. In 2010 the building became one of the Czech Republic’s cultural heritage sites. On one corner there is a copy of a Baroque statuette of the Black Madonna (hence the name) from the building that stood here earlier.