First Day Of Spring?

I spoke too soon about Spring. Last week was really warm and sunny, but the weather turned colder over the weekend and this week temperatures are a few degrees above freezing with a few flakes of snow around.

I had a cancelled class this morning and decided to visit the Cubist Museum, rather than just the cafe. It has an interesting collection of paintings and drawings as well as pieces of furniture, photographs and architectural models of buildings designed in the Cubist style. Czech Cubism was an interesting style which tried to relate all of the above forms into a common style. The architectural period was essentially over once the First World War ended, and architecture moved on to Modernism and Functionalism. This is a pity in my view as Czech Cubist architecture is simple and fairly minimal without the starkness of later Modernism.

The exhibition includes a drawing of a design for the Czech National Monument in Žižkov in the Cubist style. If this had been selected it would have been an improvement on the actual winner in my view, because it would have used a uniquely Czech style and would have been easier on the eye than the Functionalist block which was actually built.