Josef Gočár (1880 – 1945)

Josef Gočár was a Czech architect and the one of the principal founders of modern architecture in Czechoslovakia. Having studied at the State Technical School in Prague, he received his early education and then went on to study at the Prague School of Applied Arts under Jan Kotěra. After graduation, Gočár continued to work under Jan Kotěra at his studio for two years, during which he joined the Mánes Union of Fine Arts. In 1911 Gočár joined a collaboration of artists called the Cubist Group of Visual Artists, alongside Pavel Janák, Josef Chochol and Odoln Grege. Josef Gočár became a professor at the Prague Academy of Fine Arts in 1924. His creative career was marked by dabbling in different areas of Modern architecture including the movements of Cubism, Rondocubism and Functionalism His most important works on display in Prague are the splendid House at the Black Madonna, where you can witness the meticulously renovated interior of the Grand Café Orient and the Functionalist Saint Wenceslas Church in Vršovice, Prague 10. Josef Gočár was awarded the Ordre de la Légion d'honneur from the country of France in 1926.