Jan Kotěra

Jan Karel Zdenko Kotěra was born on December 18, 1871, in Brno. From 1897 to 1890, he studied construction at the German technical school in Plzeň, and from 1890 to 1894, he engaged in construction practice. From 1894 to 1897, he studied architecture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna under O. Wagner. After receiving the Roman Prize, he traveled through Italy and exhibited drawings from his journey at Topič in Prague in 1898. He continued to live and work in Prague. Since 1898, he has taught as a deputy to Prof. B. Ohmann at the special school for architecture at the Arts and Crafts School in Prague, where he was appointed professor in 1899. In 1910, he left for the Prague Academy of Fine Arts, where he served as a professor of architecture until his death (also as rector in 1912-13, 1914-16, and 1920-22). He was also the general commissioner for art exhibitions in Venice (1910), Rome (1911), and Munich (1913). For the Czech Land Committee, he worked as a regulatory expert from 1910 to 1921. In 1907, he founded the magazine for modern architecture, Styl, and in 1914, he established the Union of Czech Work. He died on April 17, 1923, in Prague and was buried at the Vinohradský Cemetery. In 1926, a comprehensive posthumous exhibition of his work was held at the Mánes Gallery.

Jan Kotěra was an architect of international significance and a leading figure in Czech modern architecture. His early buildings have a Secessionist character with ornamental, often folkloric decor. Kotěra's later buildings focus on pure functionality but always possess high artistic quality with traits of nobility and monumentality. In his public and residential buildings, he combined the visual arts (sculpture, painting, design) with architecture into an inseparable whole, in which architecture always played a leading artistic role. Kotěra's buildings have a clear, coherent layout, a variety of forms, artistic logic, and always great and original creativity. Most of his buildings are characterized by asymmetrical yet balanced compositions, highlighted by tectonics and the use of exposed brickwork. Kotěra embodied the skills of an excellent builder and an outstanding architectural artist. As a draftsman, graphic artist, watercolorist, and applied artist, he was unmatched; his projects are magnificent works of art in themselves. Lastly, it should not be overlooked that as an influential educator and designer, he raised a whole generation of our top architects.