Author Description

The publication presents the situation in the art and artistic scene of Ostrava and the Ostrava region. It reflects the cosmopolitan character of art, for example in the work of Hugo Baar, Anton Kolig and Albín Polášek. The main part is devoted to artistic creation between 1918-1938. For the first time, the individual chapters comprehensively represent patrons, collectors and supporters of artistic endeavors such as the Lichnovs and Oskara Federer. The emergence of the Czechoslovak Republic and the transformation in the perception of art brought new challenges for artists and raised the question of how much the regional art scene was open to these changes. The answer can be found in any field which deals with the creations of famous and lesser known artists of the region (Bretislav Bartos, Ferdis Dusa, Alois Zapletal, Valentin Drzkovic, etc.), artists who worked here during a certain period of life (eg Antonin Prochazka, Bohumir Dvorsky) ), or for whom the region was an inspiration (Jan Zrzavý). The context of the architectural development of the region is dealt with in the chapter Architecture between Centers and Peripherals, as it was built during the First Czechoslovak Republic on the border of Moravia and Silesia. A separate chapter is devoted to German and Jewish painters and sculptors (Franz Barwig, Adolf Zdrazila, Raimund Mosler, Paul Gebauer, Karl Harrer, Helen Scholz-Zelezny, Josef Obeth, Engelbert Kaps etc.) and arts and crafts, especially the still underestimated ceramic workshop of Alois Jaroněk. Poetic designs with landscape features, in which Ferdiš Duša also participated, reflect in a distinctive way the influence of the Arts and Crafts movement and their desire for the lost beauty of handicraft. The progressive tendency of modern advertising design is dealt with in chapters devoted to book graphics and industrial design in connection with designs for Tatra Kopřivnice.