Exhibition Architecture of the 20th Century in the Pardubice Region at GJF

An exhibition of photographs by photographer Štěpán Bartoš capturing buildings realized in the twentieth century in the Pardubice region. Alongside buildings such as the crematorium by Pavel Janák in Pardubice, the Ústí theater by Kamil Roškota, or the Bohdaneč spa by Josef Gočár, which have their undisputed position in the history of Czech architecture, visitors can also familiarize themselves with numerous buildings by both well-known and lesser-known architects.
The Pardubice area is rich in modern architecture – here we can find buildings from the period of historicism, secession, art deco, modernism, functionalism, but also from the present day designed by top architects. The advantage of this region was the capital and enlightened builders who commissioned designs from renowned architects. The fact that the nearby Hradec Králové, under the guidance of the enlightened mayor František Ulrich, became an important center of quality architecture thanks to invited students of the Austrian Academy professor Otto Wagner and also students of Jan Kotěra had a significant impact.
Among the architects who worked in Pardubice are Antonín Balšánek, Josef Fanta (both mainly known for their secessionist buildings in Prague – the Municipal House and the Main Train Station), Alois Dryák, František Sander (designed several water towers evoking lighthouses), Jan Kotěra (Charvát Villa in Vysoké Mýto), Ladislav Machoň (art deco palace Passage in Pardubice), František Roith (bank in Pardubice), Jaromír Krejcar (together with sculptor Josef Mařatka, the monument to fallen legionnaires in Ústí nad Orlicí), Bohuslav Fuchs (functionalistic Löwit Villa in Heřmanův Městec), Albert Libra, Jan Gillar, Ladislav Žák, Oldřich Liska (cooperative housing with late cubist decor), Plečnik's student Karel Řepa (author of an extraordinary sports complex for the time, functionalist pavilions at the sports exhibition, Industrial Museum). Among the prominent architectural figures of recent times or the present included in this list are Růžena Žertová (department store Prior in Pardubice), Josef Pleskot, Aleš Burian and Gustav Křivinka, Zdeněk Fránek, but also the Dutch studio Mecanoo (a collection of residential houses on the outskirts of Svitavy).
Zdeněk Lukeš together with Pavel Panoch and Štěpán Bartoš wrote and compiled a book two years ago titled Kaleidoscope of Shapes, which introduces this architecture. The material that photographer Štěpán Bartoš prepared for the books gave rise to a traveling exhibition under the auspices and support of the Pardubice region. After Prague, the next stop will be Berlin.
Štěpán Bartoš is a professional photographer, for example, photographing contemporary studio glass for the East Bohemian Museum, and primarily technical and architectural monuments for the Pardubice region. His long-term documentation of the construction of the Prevorstvy New Court in western Bohemia, a work by British architect John Pawson, is noteworthy; photographs of the Czech pavilion at Expo 2005 in Aichi (a standalone publication, also in the book by Petr Nikl The Gardens of Dreams and Fantasy); a solo exhibition during the Czech cultural season in France (Bohemia Magica) – the house of poet Bohuslav Reynek in Grenoble.