Cabinet of prints, 3rd floor
There are numerous Czech modern artists who can be fully understood only with respect to the universality of their work. For architects who helped shape public space and the style of a period, this universality meant a significant enrichment of their creative potential. The universality of architects was also one of the reasons why Cubism in Bohemia influenced a wide range of artistic forms including architecture. Vlastislav Hofman’s artistic activity comes out of this Cubist milieu. Like his fellow architect, Bedřich Feuerstein, Hofman was extremely versatile, inspiring members of the *Devětsil* artistic group in the 1920s. He was an architect, urban planner, stage designer, painter, and graphic artist, as well as the author of many essays and theoretical treatises. Aside from “serious” architecture (he worked for the Prague city hall as a bridge designer), Hofman devoted himself to purely conceptual architecture which was not intended to be realized. He also created prints for art magazines (*Umělecký měsíčník, Der Sturm, Červen*), as well as drawings and paintings. His watercolour landscapes which technically bordered between drawing and painting capture spontaneously the landscape’s atmosphere and the stylized essence of its structure. Hofman often worked with motifs from his travels, depicting the idiosyncratic structure of the landscape, behind which one can feel the essence of architectural creation. His watercolours are fresh, artistically mature works that inspired a number of Hofman’s contemporaries (*Tvrdošijní*).
The cabinet of prints shows a wide range of Hofman’s work from 1917-1923, his most artistically significant years.
