Databáze uměleckých výstav v českých zemích 1820 – 1950

The traveling photographic survey of French architecture reflected Czechoslovak architects' efforts to renew cultural ties with France after the war. Supported by the diplomatic patronage of both countries, the event drew on the Franco-Czechoslovak Declaration on Scientific, Literary, and Educational Relations, ratified in December 1945. The Prague exhibition was opened with an address by Adolf Hoffmeister, standing in for the Minister of Information, Václav Kopecký. Among the Czech diplomatic figures present at the opening were Foreign Minister Jan Masaryk, while the French side was represented by Ambassador Maurice Dejean and André Croizé of the Ministry of Reconstruction and Urban Planning.

From Prague the exhibition traveled to Brno, where its opening was marred by low attendance: a last-minute change of venue had left the public without accurate information (Brno, studio of the Dr. E. Beneš Technical School, Veveří, September 13–27, 1947). It subsequently opened to Slovak audiences in Bratislava (Agricultural Museum, October 12–19, 1947). The Prague opening had been planned to include one of the most prominent participating architects, Auguste Perret. However, due to health reasons, he did not visit Czechoslovakia until the end of November 1947. In his absence, Perret's colleague André Hermant and fellow French architects Jean Bossu, Marcel Lods, René Bouxin, and Jean Cheminau gave lectures on diverse topics.

The exhibition presented French modern architecture in Prague, Brno, and Bratislava through seventy-six large-format photographs mounted on mobile panels, arranged primarily by building type and function. The most extensively represented architects were Auguste Perret, Le Corbusier, and André Lurçat. Specific works on display included the Unité d'habitation in Marseille, the church of Notre-Dame du Raincy, the house on the rue Franklin in Paris, and the reconstructions of Le Havre and Saint-Denis. Alongside exterior views and urban plans, the exhibition also showcased interiors and furniture design, such as works by Charlotte Perriand. Jean Prouvé's prefabricated house attracted notable interest, as the reviews attest.

The absence of accompanying models, site plans, and floor drawings – a shortcoming lamented by Oldřich Starý in Architektura ČSR [Starý 1947a, p. 268] –directed visitors' attention toward the artistic expression of the buildings on display. The organizers situated reinforced-concrete, brutalist, and prefabricated construction within the broader lineage of French architectural tradition. The exhibition opened with a panel depicting the ancient aqueduct Pont du Gard, the brick-paved Place Royale (Place Henri IV) in Paris, and a photograph of the Gothic cathedral of Saint-Étienne in Bourges, set in contrast to the interior of an unidentified industrial hall.

All reviews in the press shared a unifying theme – the monumentality of French architecture. The favourable impression created by French museums, residential buildings and train stations was reinforced by the installation of large-format photographs, which, however, received little further attention in the reviews. Questions of monumentality and modern classicism were also taken up by André Hermant, whose lecture discussed the theory of the classical and baroque principles, attributing these qualities to the two towering figures of French modern architecture, Auguste Perret and Le Corbusier.

In his review for Svobodné noviny, Jaromír Krejcar described the exhibition as an "indicator of the only monumentality that modern art can express – the monumentality of the freedom of the creative spirit." [Krejcar 1947, p. 5] This was in response to the contemporary architectural debate surrounding monumentalism and the issue of modern classicism, a style frequently associated with totalitarian regimes. His review also exemplified the uncritical admiration and sentimentality with which the Czech cultural world approached French art. "Mud of cement, sand, and gravel, reinforced with iron rods," wrote Krejcar, "is for Perret the same expressive medium as raw sculptural clay was for Rodin and Bourdelle." [Krejcar 1947, p. 5] A similar spirit pervades Oldřich Starý's catalogue essay, where he proclaimed Le Corbusier "a dazzling preacher and creator, uniting poetic imagination with the profound truth of life and a brilliant theory into an indivisible whole of the highest order." [Starý 1947b, n.p.]

The Czechoslovak organizers regarded the exhibition as a success, partly because of Auguste Perret's visit to Prague and Zlín, which was reported in detail in the January 1948 issue of Architektura ČSR. Perret himself wrote about the visit in the summer of 1948 for the journal Techniques et architecture. The autumn 1947 exhibition had fostered reciprocal contacts and enabled the representation of Czechoslovak architects in France through a special issue of the journal. However, its potential was overshadowed by the new political order following the February 1948 coup and the subsequent imposition of totalitarian ideology – which proved damaging not only to Czech-French relations, but also to the overall tone of the Czechoslovak issue of Techniques et architecture, whose opening essay by Karel Honzík on the character of Czechoslovak architecture struck a conspicuously revisionist note.

Magdalena Dědičová

Works Cited

Starý 1947a: Oldřich Starý, Výstava francouzské architektury, Architektura ČSR VI, 1947, pp. 265–268

Starý 1947b: Oldřich Starý, předmluva, Výstava francouzské architektury (exh. cat.), Praha 1947, n.p.

Krejcar 1947: Jaromír Krejcar, Kulturní kronika, Výstava francouzské architektury, Svobodné noviny III, 1947, no. 201, 29. 8., p. 5

Further Reading

André Bouxin – Václav Rajniš (eds.), Tchécoslovaquie, Techniques et architecture VIII, 1948, no. 3–4 (monographic issue)

Magdalena Dědičová, Architektonické výstavy čtyřicátých až šedesátých let 20. století v Praze, (thesis), Department of Art History FF UK, Praha 2024

Oldřich Starý, Auguste Perret v Praze, Architektura ČSR VII, 1948, pp. 35–36

Oldřich Starý, Přednášky francouzských architektů, Architektura ČSR VI, 1947, p. 322

Rostislav Švácha, Architektura čtyřicátých let, in: Polana Bregantová et al., Dějiny českého výtvarného umění V, Praha 2005, pp. 31–73

Radmila Veselá, Auguste Perret a česká architektura, (dissertation), Department of Art History FF UK, Praha 2013

Anonymous author, V atelieru brněnské techniky Výstava francouzské architektury, Slovo národa III, 1947, no. 216, 16. 9., p. 4

Anonymous author, Výstava francouzské architektury …, Čin III, 1947, no. 212, 11. 9., p. 3

Anonymous author, Výstava francouzské architektury v Praze, Osvobozený našinec LXXX, 1947, no. 178, 2. 8., p. 3

Anonymous author, Výstava francúzskej architektury v Bratislave, Stavebný obzor II, no. 19, p. 1

Čt, Výstava francouzské architektury, Svobodné noviny III, 1947, no. 179, 2. 8., p. 5

Sa., Zprávy, Z kroniky dnů, Architekt XXXXV, 1947, no. 9–10, October, p. 168