Architect, urban planner, designer and teacher Pavel Janák was the leading theorist of the Czech Cubist movement. He saw the slanting surfaces and crystalline forms of Cubism as an expression of the power of the human spirit overcoming the formative power of nature.

Jindřich Halabala helped create a new mass-market approach to home design and furnishing in Czechoslovakia.

Josef Gočár occupies a prominent position in the history of Czech architecture of the first half of the 20th century. Although he found application for his skills in architecture, his designs for furniture, clocks and lamps from the years 1911…

“Ornament is crime” declaimed Adolf Loos – an influential architect, designer and campaigner for simplicity and functionality in design. Yet despite the striking simplicity of his exteriors, Loos’ interiors were decorated comfortably, with Persian rugs, decorative furniture and luxurious inlaid…

Vlastislav Hofman found the best outlet for his many talents in stage design, but he also painted, worked in town planning and bridge building for Prague, designed buildings, interiors, furniture and decorative objects, and wrote prolifically on design theory. In 1911 Hofman became the first to design furniture in the Czech Cubist style. Vlastislav Hofman, an architect, sought to liberate matter and find its inner soul. Liberating matter and finding its dynamic essence gave rise to a new abstract form that does not resemble anything found in nature. In his work, architecture and design strove to set matter in motion and then freeze it in time. Vlastislav Hofman (1884-1964) našel nejlepší prostor k uplatnění svého mimořádného talentu především ve scénografii, výjimečných výsledků však dosáhl také v designu, výtvarném umění a architektuře.

Ladislav Sutnar is best described by the word pioneer, because he developed new ways of thinking and creating. He boldly realised things that today’s generation takes for granted. With his all-round talent he joined the community of modern European designers…

Rudolf Stockar (1886 – 1957) Rudolf Stockar made his name in the design of ceramics, jewellery and furniture. His career was particularly dominated by the decorative arts between 1915 and 1927 when Stockar worked as the director of Artěl –…

Adolf Matura was active in several glassmaking disciplines. He is known as a creator of cut and carved glass and a designer of pressed glass, but his designs also include a set of teacups and teapot made of borosilicate glass.

Jaroslav Ježek is a leading Czech designer who gained fame for his practical and figural porcelain items. One of the representatives of the Brussels style. At the 1958 World Expo this style is named after he represented Czechoslovakia very successfully, taking away two major awards.

Václav Špála is a phenomenon of Czech modern art. His work was both uncritically admired and condemned by the public and he remains one of the country’s artists most sought after by collectors. Although he is perceived primarily as a painter,…

Jožka Baruch was born in Moravia on July 28th, 1892. He studied at the State Vocational School for woodworking, graduating as a figural and ornamental woodcarver. He continued his studies at the Academy of Applied Arts in Prague, where he studied painting and printmaking. It was prints, especially woodcuts, which became Baruch’s most significant form of expression; greatly influencing his paintings and drawings. He worked as a commercial printmaker, producing posters, advertisements and book illustrations.

  In 1916, the industrial designer and architect Willem Hendrik Gispen (1890-1981) began an ornamental smithy in Rotterdam. The first products were applied art pieces and unique items in wrought iron, copper and bronze. In 1926, Gispen started the production…