Zdenek Wirth Otakar Novotny Pavel (1 results)

Soft cover. Condition: Near Fine. 1st Edition. Quartos, generally 30x23 cm., bound and in wrappers, various paginations. Editors include Zdenek Wirth, Otokar Novotný, Pavel Janák, Vilém Dvorák inter alia. All the editorial staff throughout its life were working architects. From its inception, Styl was a major architecture and design journal, engaging the pioneering architects of the Secessionist and Czech Cubist period through Rondo-cubism, experimental trials and into Functionalism. The first years of Styl were based on the Secessionist and early experiments of Cubist design. The first year is a sumptuous production, with metallic color lithographs and tissue guards on all full-page illustrations and photographs printed on heavy paper. As time went on it had to curtail these luxury elements due to financial considerations. Edited and later published by the Společnost architektu v Praze (Society of Architects in Prague), it maintained a superior standard of discourse and analysis of the work presented on its pages. The members of the Society were the classic designers from the Secessionist and Cubist eras (Gočár, Novotný, Janák, Kotěra, Plečnik, Chochol, etc., many of them students of Otto Wagner), all individuals of unique talents whose work, supported by sumptuous commissions, bestowed a rich legacy which contributed to make Prague a capital city of architecture and design. Eventually with an ageing Functionalist editorial staff and chronically short of funds, Styl met the same fate as its fellow Czech design journals Stavitel, Stavba and Architekt SIA; by 1939 they had all amalgamated into the single publication of the day, Architektura. The present collection is all published. The Year I (1908/09) contains several inserts, including an important statement by Artel as a broadsheet, a highly collectible item in its own right. Both it and Year II (1910, extremely rare in itself) are boxed in elegant, Secessionist casings with ties as a deluxe edition holding the issues in original wrappers. They are both Ex-Libris Marie Fischerová-Kvechová (1892-1984), Czech impressionist and children's book illustrator. Several annuals are the publisher's cloth release, a few are in private bindings and the rest are in the original wrappers; Year XVIII is unbound, with front covers and inserts, slipcased. OCLC locates three institutional holdings in North America, all partial (Columbia, Getty, Art Inst Chicago); the Beinecke at Yale holds a complete set. The full set of all published is rarely encountered. All issues in very good to fine condition. More information and photos available on request.