Exhibition about Czech Architect Bohuslav Fuchs

An opening of exhibition of an important Czech architect Bohuslav Fuchs took place in Tallinn on 16th May. Museum of Estonian Architecture, Czech Embassy in Tallinn and Gallery of Architecture in Brno organized the event.

This project, initiated in 2015 by Gallery of Architecture in Brno was prepared for the occasion of 120 years since the birth of Fuchs. Martin Enev and Gabriel Kurtis are the authors of the exhibition, however many other architecture experts participated in a creation of texts for the exhibition, such as Vladimir Šlapeta, Jan Sapák, Irena Murray-Žantovská and others.  

The exhibition maps the life and work of Bohuslav Fuchs (1895-1972). Fuchs was a Czech architect, urbanist and architecture theorist, as well as a main representative of Brno functionalist school, whose extensive work influenced the development of Czech architecture, as well as the development of modern architecture in an international context.  Fuchs himself came from very humble origins and prior to his architecture studies, he studied to become a bricklayer. In 1916, architect Jan Kotěra enrolled him to Academy of Fine Arts in Prague. In the 1920s, Bohuslav Fuchs worked for the local building authority as an architect for the city of Brno. Among other activities, Fuchs also won several important urban competitions, in which he also later become a juror and helped with a development of high standard in architecture. Among his most famous works belong hotel Avion, the former Zeman's Cafe, a bus station, the Brno Grand Pavilion, Moravian Bank, Masaryk's student home, urban spa in Zábrdovice and other important buildings. Bohuslav Fuchs was very active during his career, as he realized more than 160 constructions. Between 1947 and 1958, he was a university teacher and a dean of Faculty of Architecture at Brno University of Technology. His work at the university was however restricted and sabotaged. After a coup in February 1948, former Czechoslovak leaders started to push Fuchs out of public procurement. Fuchs had to close his own atelier, as well as his company AKA. In the end of the 1950s, he was dismissed from the university due to political reasons. Bohuslav Fuchs won many awards and became a member in many prestigious international organizations. He was also an honourable foreign correspondent of RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects.) In 1968, Fuchs was awarded a title of National Artist in Czechoslovakia. 

A lecture by akad. arch. Jan Sapák took place before the actual opening of the exhibition and nearly 30 attendees were present at the lecture. The exhibition was ceremonially opened after the lecture. The director of the museum, Triin Ojari, presented opening remarks. Akad. arch. Jan Sapák, together with the curator of the exhibition Mait Väljas also gave a speech. The Deputy Head of Mission at Czech Embassy in Tallinn, Alena Teznerová also gave a speech at the opening, in which she expressed appreciation that Czech Embassy could be involved in the project that aims at making the name of the famous Czech architect abroad even more visible. A tasting of Czech beer crowned the event.

One more event will accompany the topic of Bohuslav Fuchs at the Museum of Estonian Architecture. It will be a screening of documentary from Czech Television called European architect Bohuslav Fuchs, directed by Pavel Jirásek (2016). The screening will take place on 30th May.

Architect Jan Sapák and curator of the exhibiton, Mait Väljas also conducted an interview on Bohuslav Fuchs. The interview will be published at the beginning of June in an important cultural weekly magazine Sirp.

The exhibition will remain open until 19th August 2018.

Attachments

Bohuslav Fuchs exhibition poster 2 MB PDF (Adobe Acrobat document) May 24, 2018

Galleries


Bohuslav Fuchs exhibition opening in Tallinn