Karel Teige
Encyclopedia
Karel Teige was the major figure of the Czech avant-garde
movement Devětsil
(Butterbur) in the 1920s, a graphic artist, photographer, and typographer. Teige also worked as an editor and graphic designer for Devětsil's monthly magazine ReD (Revue Devětsilu).
With evidently endless energy, Teige introduced modern art to Prague
. Devětsil-sponsored exhibitions and events brought international avant-garde figures like Le Corbusier
, Man Ray
, Paul Klee
, Vladimir Mayakovsky
, and Walter Gropius
, among many others, to lecture and perform in Prague. Teige interpreted their work, sometimes literally, for the Czech audience. In his 1935 Prague lecture, André Breton
paid tribute to his "perfect intellectual fellowship" with Teige and Nezval
: "Constantly interpreted by Teige in the most lively way, made to undergo an all-powerful lyric thrust by Nezval, Surrealism can flatter itself that it has blossomed in Prague as it has in Paris."
Although not an architect, Teige was an articulate and knowledgeable architecture critic, an active participant in CIAM
, and friends with Hannes Meyer
, the second director of the Bauhaus
. Teige and Meyer both believed in a scientific, functionalist
approach to architecture, grounded in Marxist
principles. In 1929 he famously criticized Le Corbusier's Mundaneum
project (planned for Geneva
but never built) on the grounds that Corbusier had departed from rational functionalism, and was on his way to becoming a mere stylist. Teige believed that 'the only aim and scope of modern architecture is the scientific solution of exact tasks of rational construction.'
After welcoming the Soviet
army as liberators, Teige was silenced by the Communist
government in 1948. In 1951 he died of a heart attack, said to be a result of a ferocious Soviet press campaign against him as a 'Trotskyite degenerate,' his papers were destroyed by the secret police, and his published work was suppressed for decades.
Avant-garde
Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....
movement Devětsil
Devetsil
The Devětsil was an association of Czech avant-garde artists, founded in 1920 in Prague. From 1923 on there was also an active group in Brno. The movement discontinued its activities in 1930 ....
(Butterbur) in the 1920s, a graphic artist, photographer, and typographer. Teige also worked as an editor and graphic designer for Devětsil's monthly magazine ReD (Revue Devětsilu).
With evidently endless energy, Teige introduced modern art to Prague
Prague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
. Devětsil-sponsored exhibitions and events brought international avant-garde figures like Le Corbusier
Le Corbusier
Charles-Édouard Jeanneret, better known as Le Corbusier , was a Swiss-born French architect, designer, urbanist, writer and painter, famous for being one of the pioneers of what now is called modern architecture. He was born in Switzerland and became a French citizen in 1930...
, Man Ray
Man Ray
Man Ray , born Emmanuel Radnitzky, was an American artist who spent most of his career in Paris, France. Perhaps best described simply as a modernist, he was a significant contributor to both the Dada and Surrealist movements, although his ties to each were informal...
, Paul Klee
Paul Klee
Paul Klee was born in Münchenbuchsee, Switzerland, and is considered both a German and a Swiss painter. His highly individual style was influenced by movements in art that included expressionism, cubism, and surrealism. He was, as well, a student of orientalism...
, Vladimir Mayakovsky
Vladimir Mayakovsky
Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky was a Russian and Soviet poet and playwright, among the foremost representatives of early-20th century Russian Futurism.- Early life :...
, and Walter Gropius
Walter Gropius
Walter Adolph Georg Gropius was a German architect and founder of the Bauhaus School who, along with Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier, is widely regarded as one of the pioneering masters of modern architecture....
, among many others, to lecture and perform in Prague. Teige interpreted their work, sometimes literally, for the Czech audience. In his 1935 Prague lecture, André Breton
André Breton
André Breton was a French writer and poet. He is known best as the founder of Surrealism. His writings include the first Surrealist Manifesto of 1924, in which he defined surrealism as "pure psychic automatism"....
paid tribute to his "perfect intellectual fellowship" with Teige and Nezval
Vítezslav Nezval
Vítězslav Nezval was one of the most prolific avant-garde Czech writers in the first half of the twentieth century and a co-founder of the Surrealist movement in Czechoslovakia....
: "Constantly interpreted by Teige in the most lively way, made to undergo an all-powerful lyric thrust by Nezval, Surrealism can flatter itself that it has blossomed in Prague as it has in Paris."
Although not an architect, Teige was an articulate and knowledgeable architecture critic, an active participant in CIAM
Congrès International d'Architecture Moderne
The Congrès internationaux d'architecture moderne – CIAM was an organization founded in 1928 and disbanded in 1959, responsible for a series of events and congresses arranged around the world by the most prominent architects of the time, with the objective of spreading the principles of the Modern...
, and friends with Hannes Meyer
Hannes Meyer
Hans Emil "Hannes" Meyer was a Swiss architect and second director of the Bauhaus in Dessau from 1928 to 1930.-Early work:...
, the second director of the Bauhaus
Bauhaus
', commonly known simply as Bauhaus, was a school in Germany that combined crafts and the fine arts, and was famous for the approach to design that it publicized and taught. It operated from 1919 to 1933. At that time the German term stood for "School of Building".The Bauhaus school was founded by...
. Teige and Meyer both believed in a scientific, functionalist
Functionalism (architecture)
Functionalism, in architecture, is the principle that architects should design a building based on the purpose of that building. This statement is less self-evident than it first appears, and is a matter of confusion and controversy within the profession, particularly in regard to modern...
approach to architecture, grounded in Marxist
Marxism
Marxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...
principles. In 1929 he famously criticized Le Corbusier's Mundaneum
Mundaneum
The Mundaneum was an institution created in 1910 out of the initiative of two Belgian lawyers Paul Otlet and Henri La Fontaine as part of their documentation science...
project (planned for Geneva
Geneva
Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...
but never built) on the grounds that Corbusier had departed from rational functionalism, and was on his way to becoming a mere stylist. Teige believed that 'the only aim and scope of modern architecture is the scientific solution of exact tasks of rational construction.'
After welcoming the Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
army as liberators, Teige was silenced by the Communist
Communist Party of Czechoslovakia
The Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, in Czech and in Slovak: Komunistická strana Československa was a Communist and Marxist-Leninist political party in Czechoslovakia that existed between 1921 and 1992....
government in 1948. In 1951 he died of a heart attack, said to be a result of a ferocious Soviet press campaign against him as a 'Trotskyite degenerate,' his papers were destroyed by the secret police, and his published work was suppressed for decades.
Studies
- Stavba a báseň
- Svět, který se směje
- Svět, který voní
- Jarmark umění
- Surrealismus proti proudu
Scientific writings
- Soudobá mezinárodní architektura
- Moderní architektura v Československu
- Moderní fotografie v Československu
- Vývojové proměny v umění
- Vývoj sovětské architektury
- Sociologie architektury
- Jan Zrzavý
English Editions
- Modern Architecture in Czechoslavia and Other Writings (Texts & Documents), J P Getty Trust Pubn, 2000, ISBN 089236596X
- The Minimum Dwelling, MIT Press, 2002, ISBN 0262201364
Secondary literature
- Karel Teige. L'Enfant Terrible of the Czech Modernist Avant-Garde, ed. by Eric Dluhosch and Rostislav Svácha, MIT Press, 1999, ISBN 0-262-04170-7 - includes 4 Essays of Teige
- Esther Levinger: "A life in nature - Karel Teige's journey from Poetism to Surrealism" In: Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte, vol. 67.2004, 3, pp. 401-420
- Peter A. Zusi: "The Style of the Present: Karel Teige on Constructivism and Poetism" in: Representations, 88. Fall 2004, pp. 102-124
- Prager Architektur und die europäische Moderne, ed. by Tomáš Valena and Ulrich Winko, Berlin: Mann, 2006
- Radu-Alexandra Răuţă: "Shifting meanings of modernism: parallels and contrasts between Karel Teige and Cezar Lăzărescu" in: The journal of architecture, Royal Institute of British Architects. - Bd. 14.2009, 1, S. 27-44
External links
- Description of recent Teige biography
- On Teige's erotic surrealist photomontages
- http://www.nyu.edu/greyart/exhibits/teige/ Dreams and Disillusion: Karel Teige and the Czech Avant-Garde