Adolf Loos. The Repetition of Genius

The Museum of the Capital City of Prague opens on June 18, 2020, in the gallery of the Study and Documentation Center Norbertov an exhibition titled Adolf Loos. Repetition of a Genius. This year, professionals and enthusiasts of modern architecture commemorate the personality of architect Adolf Loos on the occasion of the anniversary of his birth. The exhibition addresses the architectural legacy of Adolf Loos, which lies in the remarkable play with space, material, furnishings, and light.

Throughout his life, Adolf Loos was an unyielding advocate of objectivity, economy, and rationality in architectural thinking. Among Loos's pioneering acts is the departure from Art Nouveau and ornamentation, which he replaced with the natural structure of stone, wood, and other natural materials, and the introduction of the concept of Raumplan (spatial plan) into architectural practice. He remained faithful to once-tested schemes, which he used in designing interiors and did not hesitate to repeat over and over again in new commissions.

Visitors will be able to observe Loos's "living spatial programs" respecting the everyday rituals of the wealthy middle-class clientele through examples of interiors from Plzeň, Prague, and Brno. Each of the programs, for example, the connection of rooms either in the form of enfilade or complex Raumplan, was created anew by Loos according to the individual needs of clients. For each activity, the architect created an optimal space (dining room, living room, bedroom, etc.). For instance, the representative room was always sumptuous, the largest in the entire apartment, while the library or boudoir had to evoke an impression of intimacy. Thanks to spatial illusions and a new understanding of space, primarily Loos's interiors acquired a completely new artistic and architectural quality, highlighted by the thoughtful use of selected valuable surface materials.

Loos had an extraordinarily developed sense of material and also respect for its craftsmanship. He rejected artistic imitation, superficiality, and falsehood in architecture. He sharply condemned the imitation of expensive materials with others that were of lower quality and cheaper. Craftsman-refined materials, whether it was stone, wood, or metal, were sacred to him. The natural color, grain, and texture of the material represented for Loos the "hidden ornament." He mostly clad the representative spaces of his interiors with rare types of marble, used mahogany in dining rooms, and maple and lemon wood in women's rooms. Men's spaces retained their dignity thanks to dark paneling made of oak or mahogany.

The exhibition, which is a reprise of the exhibition that the Museum of the Capital City of Prague presented at the Austrian Cultural Forum in Prague in 2013 on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the death of architect Adolf Loos, is newly supplemented with publications from the rich library fund of the Adolf Loos Study and Documentation Center. The exhibition will be accessible from June 18, 2020, to January 31, 2021.

Accompanying program to the exhibition:
September 23, 2020, 5:00 PM
Adolf Loos. Repetition of a Genius.
The accompanying lecture to the exhibition of the same name will present the architectural legacy of Adolf Loos and the principles of his creation, in which he considered the ethical and moral demands placed on architecture to be more important than aesthetic aspects.
Lecturer: Mgr. Maria Szadowská
Reservations can be made using the reservation form on the Muzeumprahy.cz website
Admission: 60 CZK