Gocár, Josef

Gočár, Josef

 

Born Mar. 14, 1880, in Sěmin, near Pře-louc; died Sept. 10, 1945, in Prague. Czech architect.

J. Gořár studied in Prague with J. Kotěra from 1901 to 1905. In 1923 he began to teach at the Prague Academy of Arts. In the early 1900’s he became known as a representative of architectural cubism (house “By the Dark Mother of God,” in Prague, 1911–12). From the late 1922’s he was the leader of the school of functionalism in Czech architecture. Characteristic of Gocár’s buildings (Gymnasium, a complex of schools, and a day nursery in Hradec Kralové, 1924–28) are the freedom and expediency of the spatial arrangement and the simplicity and clear proportionality of forms.

REFERENCE

Benesova M. Josef Gořár. Prague, 1958.