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At the moment when Pablo Picasso shook up the art world in 1907 with his painting Les Demoiselles d'Avignon — considered to be the first Cubist painting — there was a contingent of Czech artists working in the French capital. A number of these Czech artists were ignited by the Spaniard's discoveries and quickly conveyed the movement eastward, turning Prague into Cubism's "second center." Then something remarkable happened: Czech artists translated the French-born style not only into paint and bronze, but also into brick, concrete and stone, creating the world's first — and only — Cubist buildings.
The exhibition introduces the primary players in Czech Cubist architecture, along with the best-known Cubist buildings, some lesser-known examples, and some designs that never made it off the drawing board. In the center of the room are architectural models of four choice buildings, and there is additionally a small selection of Cubist decorative art.
Leading the procession of Czech Cubist architects is Pavel Janák, who broke away from the established Mánes Association of Fine Artists to become a founding member in 1911 of the more avant-garde Group of Artists and start the magazine Artistic Monthly. His influential essay, "The Prism and the Pyramid," published the same year, is translated into English in the book accompanying the exhibition. Janák also holds the distinction of being the first to complete a Cubist building, the Jakubec house in the central Bohemian town of Ji?ín in 1912.