In a brief period before World War I, Cubist architecture sprang up and had its first magnificent flowering in the Czech lands, born of the avant-garde currents flowing between Paris and Prague in the early years of the 20th century. The exhibition "Czech Architectural Cubism 1911-1914: A Remarkable Trend That Was Born in Prague" at the Jaroslav Fragner Gallery presents a concise history and overview of this specifically Czech building style through a lively presentation that is accessible to the layperson as well as the architecture buff.

The show and a publication with the same title are the concept of the noted architectural historian Zdeněk Lukeš and are accompanied by excellent photos by Ester Havlová, who specialized in architectural photography. A series of 33 well-designed hanging panels with photos of the buildings under discussion are interlaced with visually striking photographs of architectural details of those buildings.

The exhibition introduces the primary players in Czech Cubist architecture, along with the best-known Cubist buildings, some lesser-known examples, and some designs that never made it off the drawing board. In the center of the room are architectural models of four choice buildings, and there is additionally a small selection of Cubist decorative art.

Leading the procession of Czech Cubist architects is Pavel Janák, who broke away from the established Mánes Association of Fine Artists to become a founding member in 1911 of the more avant-garde Group of Artists and start the magazine Artistic Monthly. His influential essay, "The Prism and the Pyramid," published the same year, is translated into English in the book accompanying the exhibition. Janák also holds the distinction of being the first to complete a Cubist building, the Jakubec house in the central Bohemian town of Jičín in 1912.

Another key figure was Josef Gočár, probably best known as the architect of the House at the Black Madonna (1912-1913) in Prague's Old Town. He jumped on the Cubist bandwagon early, modifying in midstream his original modernist design for the House at the Black Madonna (originally a department store) just as Cubism was emerging. The building is now operated by the National Gallery as the Museum of Czech Cubism. A similar project is planned for Gočár's Bauer Villa (1912-1914) in Libodřice near Kolín. Considered one of the finest Cubist buildings, it is currently undergoing reconstruction by the Czech Cubism Foundation and in the future will house a permanent exhibition of Cubist furnishings and design.

Josef Chochola, a student of the Viennese modernist master Otto Wagner, became the most radical Cubist architect, taking the sharp polygonal forms further than his fellow Cubists. The multifaceted artist Vlastislav Hofman holds the distinction of having one of the last Cubist implementations — a now-demolished crematorium in Ostrava that was built from 1922 to 1925. He also may have provided some inspiration for Janák's first Cubist implementation with his proto-Cubist extension of a Baroque building in 1910.

The Cubist architect who was most successful in having his building designs realized was Emil Králíček, the creator of the Diamond Building in Prague's New Town. He also designed the famous Cubist lamppost on Jungmannovo náměstí.

After presenting the movement's main players, brief information is given about several less prominent figures, among them Otakar Novotný and Ludvík Kysela, and of Cubist buildings that no longer exist. Research into Cubist architecture is ongoing, with a few new (re)discoveries made in recent years, among them a private house in Lysá nad Labem by Králíček and an exquisite and well-preserved church interior by Oldřich Liška in Pečky. The rebirth of the Grand Café Orient in Gočár's House at the Black Madonna in 2005 is another reason for fans of Cubist architecture to cheer.

Both the exhibition and the book provide an excellent study of this specifically Czech building style. The texts for the exhibition are in Czech, English and German, and the affordable book is in Czech and English. At the back of the book are locator maps of Cubist buildings within Prague and throughout the country — a great impetus for a Cubist tour of Prague in these mild winter days.