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.
Biography
Kotěra was born in Brno, the largest city in
Moravia, to a Czech father and German-speaking mother. He studied
architecture
Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and construction, constructi ...
in Vienna during the waning days of the Austro-Hungarian Empire under the Viennese master
Otto Wagner.
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
Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...
,
England
England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...
.
These are considered Modernist landmarks of industry and a company town.
Works
*
East Bohemian Museum in
Hradec Králové,
(1908–1912)
* Peterka House, 12
Wenceslas Square,
Prague
Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...
(1899–1900)
*
National House in Prostějov
*
Trmalova Villa - an early rustic villa in Prague
[Cultural Movement]
, Foibos.cz, retrieved 4 November 2013
* Villa of
Tomáš Baťa in
Zlín
Zlín (in 1949–1989 Gottwaldov; ; ) is a city in the Czech Republic. It has about 75,000 inhabitants. It is the seat of the Zlín Region and it lies on the Dřevnice River. It is known as an industrial centre. The development of the modern city ...
*
Faculty of Law of Charles University in Prague (1924–1927)
* Two monuments for members of the Perutz family at the
New Jewish Cemetery
Gallery
Image:Hradec Králové - průčelí Muzea Východních Čech.jpg, Museum of Eastern Bohemia, Hradec Králové.
Image:Národní dům - panorama, Prostějov.jpg, Národní dům (National House), Prostějov.
Image:Zlín, vila Tomáše Bati (3).JPG, Baťa's villa, Zlín.
Image:PFUK interier.jpg, Faculty of Law, Prague.
Image:Büste Jan Kotera.JPG, Bust in Prague.
References
External links
*
Pictures from Hradec Králové museumList of works (in Czech)summary biography with imagesa
1871 births
1923 deaths
Architects from Brno
People from the Margraviate of Moravia
Czech nationalists
Moravian-German people
Architects from Austria-Hungary
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