Rondocubism

Rondocubism - also rounded Cubism, or the national style - was the characteristic architecture and applied-arts style of the newly founded Czechoslovakia, flourishing roughly between 1918 and 1925. It grew out of pre-war Czech Cubism but replaced sharp angles with rounded forms: semicircles, circles, and ovals layered over blocky, monumental facades, in vivid color and lavish ornament drawn from folklore and Slavic tradition. For a few years it served as the young republic's national style, shaping banks, crematoria, villas, and complete room interiors in which architecture, sculpture, and furniture were designed as one. Practical modernism soon displaced it - functionalism took over by the mid-1920s - and only from the 1950s was the style rehabilitated as a distinctive Czech contribution to European Art Deco.

Defining characteristics

• Rounded forms - semicircles, circles, and ovals - layered over Cubist structure
• Striking wealth of color and profuse ornament, often drawn from folklore
• Monumental, blocky facades softened by curved decorative detailing
• Architecture and applied arts designed as one: reliefs, furniture, and whole room interiors
• Geometric patterning that invokes national Slavic traditions

Key figures

• Josef Gočár (1880-1945) — Leading architect of the style, from Czech Cubism to the Legiobanka and beyond
• Pavel Janák (1882-1956) — Architect and theorist of the rounded forms (Adria Palace, Pardubice Crematorium)
• Josef Čapek (1896-1945) — Painter and writer who carried rondocubist form into painting

Example works

• Legiobanka — Josef Gočár (1921-1923)
• Adria Palace — Pavel Janák (1923-1924)
• Pardubice Crematorium — Pavel Janák and František Kysela (1921-1923)

Sources

• Rondocubism - Wikipedia encyclopedia

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