Prague - For just one week starting today, the villa of the prominent Art Nouveau sculptor Stanislav Sucharda (1866 to 1916) in Prague-Bubenč will be opened to visitors. The building, designed by architect Jan Kotěra, is still in the hands of the Sucharda family and thus not accessible to the public. On the occasion of two anniversaries this year related to Sucharda's life, it is exceptionally opened by the Stanislav Sucharda Museum Foundation.
Sucharda's villa comes from an early phase of Kotěra's work, during which influences of English architecture met elements of local ethnography. Sucharda participated in shaping his residence, with his reliefs incorporated into the interior. The main spaces of the villa have been preserved in the condition they were designed by Kotěra over a hundred years ago, including interior details. Thus, it is the only villa of this significant founder of Czech architectural modernism that has been preserved almost intact.
"Sucharda's work, alongside the colossal and controversial Palacký monument, elegant medals, and reliefs, also includes a number of portraits, tombstones, and remarkable memorial concepts. These generally feature a distinctive interpretation of Czech history, unconventional iconography, and original compositional solutions. Unfortunately, even experts do not yet know the stylistically progressive second part of Sucharda's oeuvre," stated art historian Martin Krummholz from the Institute of Art History of the Academy of Sciences.
Stanislav Sucharda came from a Nová Paka family with an artistic tradition dating back to the late 18th century. His early expression in the style of Myslbek was significantly transformed by the influence of French sculpture and modernism. Sucharda was a significant participant in Prague's social life; at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, he led the Mánes Association. Throughout his life, he served as a teacher at the Prague School of Applied Arts and briefly headed the newly established medal school at the Academy of Fine Arts.
