Janák, Pavel

Pavel Janák (1882 Prague – 1956 Prague)

Kitchen chair (from the author´s villa in Hodkovičky, Prague), 1922

wood, colour varnishes; H 78 cm, W 43 cm, D 46 cm, acquired in 2001 (purchase), conservation in 2011 (Dalibor Sedlák), UŽ 77

The chair was designed by architect Pavel Janák as part of the People’s Flat for the Union Czechoslovak Arts and Crafts in 1921 (the first exhibition of the Czechoslovak  Industry of Applied Art held in the Arts and Crafts Museum in Prague in December 1921 – February 1022). The form combines the style of country chairs and rodocubist elements and demonstrates Janák’s efforts at achieving a cultured “national style”. The blue-and-yellow colours of the chair and the severe and yet ornamental forms, and the corresponding colours of the ornamentation have contributed to it. 

Anežka Šimková