The extensive monograph presents the controversial architect Prager

Prague - A large monograph of architect Karel Prager is being published by Titanic Publishers on the occasion of his retrospective exhibition. The book was written by the exhibition's author Radomíra Sedláková, curator of the architecture collection at the National Gallery in Prague. The exhibition at the Trade Fair Palace and the publication commemorate this year's posthumous 90th birthday of the architect, builder, and visionary, one of the most distinctive creators of Czech architecture in the second half of the 20th century.
    Prager is best known to the general public mainly as the author of the former Federal Assembly building, the New Stage of the National Theatre, and the complex of buildings in Emauzy in Prague. Prager belongs to a group of creators whose work is perceived ambivalently, with some praising it and others rejecting it. The Federal Assembly building, where Prager proposed the bold "house on a house" solution, is not generally well-liked, possibly due to its original purpose. However, experts attribute qualities comparable to the world's best of its time to it.
     The publication closely examines not only all his realizations but also provides a complete overview of his competition works and unrealized projects that were intended to fundamentally change the face of Prague - including Smíchov, Košíře, Karlín, Letná, Pankrác, Albertov, and the Old Town Square. The book documents the full breadth of his work through drawings, plans, visualizations, models, period and contemporary photographs. It includes Prager's fundamental theoretical essays, a list of his collaborators from the Gama studio, and a catalogue of his patents.
    The book also maps the clichés surrounding the architect's persona. It is permeated by a multitude of often contradictory memories and opinions from Prager's colleagues and rivals, collaborating artists, art historians, and anonymous bloggers from online discussions.
    Architecture historian Zdeněk Lukeš says of Prager's work that he created works of indisputable quality as well as debased buildings that do not respect the surroundings, and reminds us that he managed to assert himself in every era, even though he was never a member of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ). In the 1970s, he was even among the creators whose work could not be written about, as censorship prohibited mentioning his name. Only when he managed to complete the new building of the National Theatre within a record time for its centenary, could his name appear as the author, states Yvonna Fričová from Titanic Publishers.