Jiří Kroha (5 June 1893 – 7 June 1974) was a

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus' Places * Czech, ...

architect, painter, sculptor, scenographer, designer and pedagogue. He was an important exponent of Czech architecture and design during inter-war period.

Biography

Kroha began his studies in Prague, but in 1904 his family moved to Plzeň. From 1907 to 1909 he gained his first experience with theatre, as a member of amateur

cabaret Cabaret is a form of theatrical entertainment featuring music, song, dance, recitation, or drama. The performance venue might be a pub, a casino, a hotel, a restaurant, or a nightclub with a stage for performances. The audience, often dining o ...

group. In 1911, he graduated from

realschule ''Realschule'' () is a type of secondary school in Germany, Switzerland and Liechtenstein. It has also existed in Croatia (''realna gimnazija''), the Austrian Empire, the German Empire, Denmark and Norway (''realskole''), Sweden (''realskola''), ...

in Plzeň. The same year he began to study at the Czech Technical University in Prague. Among his professors were Jan Koula, Josef Fanta, Antonín Balšánek and Rudolf Kříženecký. In 1918 he successfully finished his studies at the ''Czech Technical University''. At the same time he made first contacts with

bohemian Bohemian or Bohemians may refer to: *Anything of or relating to Bohemia Beer * National Bohemian, a brand brewed by Pabst * Bohemian, a brand of beer brewed by Molson Coors Culture and arts * Bohemianism, an unconventional lifestyle, origin ...

group of the cabaret ''Montmartre'' from ''Řetězová Street'' in Prague. Among regular guests of the performances were

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and others. In 1918 Kroha became a member of the

Mánes Union of Fine Arts The Mánes Association of Fine Artists ( or ''S.V.U.''; commonly abbreviated as ''Manes'') was an artists' association and exhibition society founded in 1887 in Prague and named after painter Josef Mánes. The Manes was significant for its inte ...

, and he also began his collaboration with '' Artěl'' (Atelier for Art Work in Prague). Teoreticke ustavy

In 1921 Kroha married Miroslava Kubátová. Their daughter Sylva was born in 1926. In the 1920s he designed several buildings in

Mladá Boleslav Mladá Boleslav (; german: Jungbunzlau) is a city in the Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 42,000 inhabitants. Mladá Boleslav is the second most populated city in the region and a major centre of the Czech automotive in ...

and Kosmonosy. His building of Secondary Industrial School in Mladá Boleslav is a valuable architectural work, protected as a national cultural monument. In 1926 he began lecturing at the Brno University of Technology, and two years later, in 1928, he moved to Brno with his family. From 1926 he began lecturing at the Brno University of Technology and in 1928 he moved with his family to Brno. He became close with Bedřich Václavek and joined the Left Front and the Society for Cultural and Economic Convergence with Soviet Russia. In 1930 he was appointed full professor of Brno technology. He completed a six-week trip to the Soviet Union. Upon his return, he embarked on intense political activity. From 1932 to 1933, he was chairman of the Committee for the Support of Families of Striking Miners in the Rosice - Oslavansk Region. In 1935, he was sent into permanent retirement for his left-wing public lectures, in which he attacked the existing state institution as a civil servant. In 1937 he was allowed to lecture again. After the Nazi invasion of Czechoslovakia he was arrested by the

Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one orga ...

for his Communist activities and was only released for his declining health with the request of the

International Red Cross The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC; french: Comité international de la Croix-Rouge) is a humanitarian organization which is based in Geneva, Switzerland, and it is also a three-time Nobel Prize Laureate. State parties (signato ...

. He was under intense surveillance for the remainder of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

. After the liberation of Czechoslovakia, he embarked on intense political and architectural activities. From 1945 to 1948 he was again the dean of the Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering of the University of Technology in Brno, in 1948 he was appointed rector of the University. His Studio of the National Artist (ANU) Jiří Kroha (later the Master Studio of the National Artist – MANU) worked on housing construction projects and propaganda installations of exhibitions and political events. The studio was dissolved in 1956. He has received a number of state and artistic awards for his work after 1948. He died in 1974 in Prague.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kroha, Jiri 1893 births 1974 deaths Architects from Prague Czech architects Czech designers Czech male sculptors Czech theatre directors Czech Technical University in Prague alumni 20th-century Czech painters Czech male painters 20th-century Czech sculptors Artists from Prague 20th-century Czech male artists