Jan Kotěra

Jan Kotěra (December 18, 1871 in Brno – April 17, 1923 in Prague) was a Czech architect, artist and interior designer, one of the key figures of modern architecture in Bohemia. Born in Brno, largest city in Moravia to a Czech father and German-speaking mother. He studied architecture in Vienna during the waning days of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, under the Viennese master Otto Wagner.

Kotěra returned to Prague in 1897 to help found a dynamic movement of Czech nationalist artists and architects centered around the Mánes Union of Fine Artsfi. Strongly influenced by the work of the Vienna Secession, his work bridged late nineteenth century architectural design and early modernism. Kotěra collaborated with Czech sculptors Jan Štursa, Stanislav Sucharda, and Stanislav's son Vojtěch Sucharda on a number of buildings.

As a teacher, Kotěra trained the generation of Czech architects, including Josef Gočár, who would bring Czech modernism to its pinnacle in the years leading up to the Nazi occupation in 1938.

Works

* Museum of Eastern Bohemia in Hradec Králové, (1908-1912)
* Peterka House, 12 Wenceslas Square, Prague (1899-1900)
* Villa of Tomáš Baťa in Zlín
* Faculty of Law at Charles University in Prague (1924-1927)
* Two monuments for members of the Perutz family at the New Jewish Cemetery

External links

* [http://www.e-architekt.cz/index.php?PId=768&KatId=7 Pictures from Hradec Králové museum]
* [http://www.archiweb.cz/architects.php?type=arch&action=show&id=435 List of works (in Czech)]
* [http://www.hotelkotera.cz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=28&Itemid=66 summary biography with images] a