Moravian Gallery will open a new exhibition of Josef Hoffmann

Brtnice (Jihlava region) - A new exhibition dedicated to the famous native - significant designer and architect Josef Hoffmann (1870-1956) will open in the museum in Brtnice in mid-June. The Moravian Gallery in Brno, which has managed his birthplace since 2006, is creating it as part of the project Architecture and Interior Design in Central Europe at the Beginning of the 20th Century - Josef Hoffmann and Dušan Jurkovič.
    "The entire project will cost nine million crowns, and the EU will cover nearly half of that amount from the Culture grant. The rest is shared by the Moravian Gallery in Brno, the Vienna Museum of Applied Arts, and the Slovak National Gallery in Bratislava," informed CTK today, the gallery spokesperson Lenka Němcová. The project includes a series of accompanying events, such as a traveling exhibition about Hoffmann's work.
    An international conference on architecture and interior design is planned for the professional public before the end of the project in autumn 2010.
    The Moravian Gallery in Brno has been dealing with the works of architects Hoffmann and Jurkovič for some time. It owns his villa in Brno and is responsible for the operation of the museum in Brtnice, the spokesperson explained. The project aims, among other things, to popularize and interpret the work of both architects in context.
    Hoffmann fundamentally influenced the development of architecture and design in the 20th century through his work. He studied architecture at the Vienna Academy under Karl von Hasenauer and Otto Wagner. In 1897, he participated with Gustav Klimt and other artists in the founding of the Association of Visual Artists of Austria — Secession. A pivotal point in Hoffmann's career was the founding of the craft workshops Wiener Werkstätte (1903-1932). He impacted nearly all areas of the applied arts: designing glass, porcelain, metals, jewelry, furniture, and patterning textile collections.
    Slovak architect, designer, ethnographer, and prominent representative of Art Nouveau Dušan Samo Jurkovič (1868 - 1947) developed a distinctive style significantly influenced by folk architecture. Among his most famous buildings in the Czech territory are Pustevny on Radhošť Mountain and the spa houses in Luhačovice.