<span>Vlastislav Hofman 1884-1964, the toughest cubist</span>

Vlastislav Hofman first introduced himself to the public on March 30, 1918, at Weinert's artistic and auction house in Prague as a painter, draftsman, and graphic artist alongside the group Tvrdošíjní, and since then, he has participated in all their domestic and foreign events. His painting and drawing have gone through significantly expressive, geometrizing, classicist, and realistic phases. He pursued them in parallel with his job at the Prague City Hall as a bridge builder. After meeting director K. H. Hilar, he embarked on a career as a theater designer, which soon brought him great recognition, international acclaim, and several awards. He is considered the founder of modern Czech scenography, with nearly 300 theatrical sets to his credit, over 200 of which he created for the stage of the National Theater in Prague.
An abundantly illustrated monograph in Czech and English accompanies the exhibition, presenting Hofman not only as an architect, scenographer, and prominent designer of applied arts but also as a painter, draftsman, graphic artist, illustrator, theorist, and co-creator of bridge architecture.
The aim of the monographic exhibition is to commemorate the innovative work of the renowned author of scenic designs, urban planning projects, proposals for original cubist architecture, furniture, artistic craft objects, book illustrations, as well as paintings and graphic sheets.

Accompanying program:
Guided tours of the exhibition with a professional lecturer every Sunday from 2 PM
Thematic guided tours with the exhibition's authors (on the dates listed below, always starting at 5 PM)
January 12, 2005 Vlastislav Hofman scenographer (Jiří Hilmera)
January 26, 2005 Vlastislav Hofman painter and graphic artist (Mahulena Nešlehová)
February 16, 2005 Vlastislav Hofman architect (Rostislav Švácha)

The exhibition is held 40 years after his death. The author himself does not have a personal archive; his legacy is scattered across the globe (A, D, CAN, USA, ...). In the past, there were exhibitions about him abroad (Düsseldorf, Berlin, Weil am Rhein, …), but none were as comprehensive as this one. A truly comprehensive exhibition took place 45 years ago at the Municipal House around the same time as the current one. 400 exhibits cover the period from 1908 to the end of the 1940s. His name is most often associated with cubism, where he was the most progressive of the four architects. The facades from 1914 could appeal to those who enjoyed the last Venice Biennale, which was teeming with bubble-like architecture. Hofman was unfortunate in terms of realizations. In our territory, only the remnants of a cemetery in Ďáblice have survived. He is the co-author of two bridges (Jirásek and Štefánik) and footbridges (to Slovanský and Dětský islands) over the Vltava River.