Exhibition in Zlín: Architect Jiří Čančík, 1922–2001

“In the end, it is a picture of working with people.”

architect Jiří Čančík, 1922–2001

The new exhibition cycle will gradually present personalities of post-war architecture in Zlín. A generational group of architects who graduated from the Academy of Art, Architecture and Design in Prague significantly shaped the face of the city. In 1948, a detached studio of the Regional Architectural Studio was established in Luhačovice, and during its brief existence, it was attended by nine contemporaries – “umprumáků”: Antonín Flašar, Eduard Staša, Miloslav Totušek, Adolf Zikmund, Jiří Čančík, Pavel Liebscher, Vladimír Palla, František Rozhon, and Jan Palacký. They significantly contributed to the construction throughout the region. The first exhibition focused on the architectural work of these prominent personalities in the period after 1948 is dedicated to the work of architect Jiří Čančík. It will present his work and personality through a number of plans, photographs, drawings, as well as personal correspondence and study works.
Jiří Čančík's work occupies an important role within post-war architecture, culminating in the realization of the Zlín crematorium (1970-1978), one of the most successful buildings of this type in Czechoslovakia. Jiří Čančík belonged to a generation that began its creative period after the tragic turn in 1948. Nevertheless, he was able to assert his individual opinion in his architectural work during the era of standardization. Characteristic of his approach is the connection between architecture and visual art. He studied architecture at the Academy of Art, Architecture and Design in Prague under Professor Jan Sokol. As a graduate of this school, he collaborated in a team with a number of artists whose works became an integral part of Čančík's realizations. These include sculptors Vladimír Janoušek, Jiří Seifert, Stanislav Mikuláštík, Zdeněk Kovář, Ferda Štábl, Jiří Vápa, ceramic artist Hana Exnarová, painter Vladimír Vašíček, Vlast Čančíková, Svatopluk Slovenčík, František Nikl, Bedřich Baroš, Ladislav Včelař, glassmaker Stanislav Libenský, Jaroslava Brychtová, and Jan Exnar. The mutual resonance of architecture and art is often overlooked today.
The exhibition, conceived primarily from materials from the architect's estate stored in the Zlín gallery, anticipates a reprise in 2016 at the gallery of the Prague Academy of Art, Architecture and Design and will be supplemented by a publication that will present an insight into the still under-researched period of Czech architecture and design history. In addition to memories from contemporaries and expert texts, it will also contain, for example, profiles of classmates from UMPRUM.

Architect Jiří Čančík (July 18, 1922 Bratislava - August 22, 2001 Zlín) already gained practice during his studies in private studios of leading architects in Prague (R. Jesenský, J. Gočár, P. Janák, and others). He moved outside the Prague center to Luhačovice, where one of the workplaces of the former construction department of Baťa was established after the war. Between 1953 and 1956, the Mojmír housing estate in Uherské Hradiště was built according to his design. In 1960, he moved to Zlín. He became the chief specialist of Stavoprojekt in Zlín and the author of several buildings in the city center (Čedok, service center). His most significant realization with substantial ideological content is the Zlín Crematorium. In Luhačovice, he designed prominent buildings of the Sigma Lutín recreational center (1961, 2nd stage 1969 – 1972). In 1962, he designed the Stavoprojekt building in Zlín with Miloš Totuška, and the group of authors was involved in solving the center of Zlín and Otrokovice. He participated in numerous architectural and urban planning competitions. In 1989, he was involved in the formation of BLOK of architects and artists. The following year, he established his own Architecture Studio and submitted competition projects for churches in Otrokovice and in the South Slopes in Zlín.