Villa Tugendhat was received by the Czech environment quite coldly or rather with ignorance up to definite negative emotions. Leaders of the Czech avant-garde, Karel Teige and Jaromír Krejcer, condemned the building as modernistic snobbery and ostentatiousness of expensive residential culture and a residence of the modern financial aristocracy.
The only positive criticism of Villa Tugendhat in a domestic magazine was written by the Brno-based German architect and critic Wilhelm Bisom. It was published in a social magazine ‘The Month’, which was published in Brno (also in German version – Der Monat) and was considerably focused on architecture and interiors. Its publisher was Bohuslav Kilián, uncle of writer Bohumil Hrabal.
Professor Vladimír Šlapeta, Czech architectural historian, is a son of architect Lubomír Šlapeta. He worked as an architect in Ostrava, was head of the Department of Architecture of the National Technical Museum in Prague, the vice-chancellor and dean of the Faculty of Architecture, Czech Technical University in Prague, and dean of the Faculty of Architecture of the Technical University in Brno. He is the author of numerous publications and exhibitions on Czech modern architecture. During the renewal and restoration of Villa Tugendhat he was a member of the THICOM International Advisory Board of Experts (Tugendhat House International Committee).
The lecture will be held on Monday 25 February 2013 at 5 p.m. on the technical floor of Villa Tugendhat (a tour of the villa is not included in the lecture).
Entrance fee is CZK 100, students and seniors CZK 50.
You can download the poster for the lecture here.
In March 2013 a year will have passed since the Tugendhat Villa re-opened to the public after complex restoration and renewal. The Study and Documentation Centre at the Villa Tugendhat prepared a series of lectures, which will be focused primarily on this exceptional building this year. After a successful prologue to the regular lectures at the Villa Tugendhat, which started with great acclaim in November 2012 by the American explorer Christopher Long (see news archive), we are preparing lectures mainly by Czech scholars and experts.
A major theme focuses on a unique exhibition project – an exhibition of works by sculptor Wilhelm Lehmbruck in the House of Arts, involving the Brno City Museum (September-November 2013). Wilhelm Lehmbruck is the author of a single work of art in the Villa Tugendhat – the Girl Looking Back torso.
Also included are two important anniversaries – this year marks 110 years since the birth of Greta Tugendhat and 100 years since the birth of architect František Kalivoda, who made personal contact with Greta Tugendhat in the 1960’s and started the long-term recovery process of making the Villa Tugendhat accessible to the public.
Lectures will be held in ca. two-month cycles (except summer months), every Monday at 5 p.m. The topics and dates will be announced in time on the Villa Tugendhat website.
Another lecture could be held on 25 March 2013 (Petr Pelčák, “Ludwig Mies van der Rohe – the path to a flowing space and aesthetics in Villa Tugendhat”).