The exhibition in Bratislava showcases the furniture of Jan Vaněk

Brno/Bratislava - A significant interwar designer from Brno, Jan Vaněk, is being presented in an exhibition at the Slovak National Museum in Bratislava starting today. Vaněk designed modern furniture for a wide clientele, but he also had exclusive commissions, and his workshops manufactured part of the furnishings for the Tugendhat villa in Brno. The author of the Bratislava exhibition is Jindřich Chatrný from the Museum of the City of Brno, which also lent several exhibits.

"Jan Vaněk was one of the most important Brno designers during the First Republic, and he even collaborated with Mies van der Rohe - it was Vaněk's company that produced some of the furniture for the Tugendhat villa, and Vaněk's furniture was also in its children's room," said Michael Kalábek, spokesperson for the Museum of the City of Brno. The exhibition not only presents Vaněk's own works but also housing advertisements and contemporary concepts of modern living.

Vaněk was born in 1891 in Třebíč. He studied at a woodworking school in Chrudim and gained experience with furniture companies in Germany. When he returned in 1911, he took over the family business in Třebíč, which he reorganized and expanded under the name Art-Industrial Workshops. In 1921, they became one of the production bases for the United Art-Industrial Enterprises, which Vaněk led.

However, in 1925, Vaněk left the company and established businesses related to interior design in Brno and Prague. He published the magazine Living Culture. He collaborated with the most significant architects of his time: in addition to Mies van der Rohe, architect of the Tugendhat villa, they included Adolf Loos, Jan Kotěra, Bohuslav Fuchs, and Josef Gočár.

Vaněk designed and furnished the interiors of apartments for well-known personalities - Karel Čapek, Jaroslav Seifert, and Hugo Haas. Besides furniture design and production, he also realized himself as an architect and lectured at the School of Art in Zlín. He died in 1962 as a person who influenced the interwar avant-garde with his creativity and ideas and who always created according to his life motto: "For good living for all."