CGD

„The inter-war decades were a time of intense movement of thought and art, a time of striving for human rebirth, and new forms of life and art. The applied arts occupied a very important place in this movement; since it was in close contact with people on daily basis, it could impact them immediately. It became a field of differentiation of opinions and cultivation: it was no longer developed in the isolated professional seclusion of workrooms and ateliers, but entered into life to verify and wake up to its social importance, its ability, and simultaneously duty to participate in making everyone's life better and richer." Alena Adlerová, Czech Applied Arts 1918-1938 р.15

Luckily, Czech design, throughout its history, has been not only documented and scientifically elaborated, but also popularized and supported in different ways by several personalities. One of the most distinctive figures in this respect is Dr. Alena Adlerová, whose activity in this area spreads over an incredible 50 years. As a curator of the Museum of Decorative Arts, she helped contemporary Czech glass design and studio glass to become famous worldwide starting in the 1960's. She created an exquisite collection in the museum. Furthermore, with her unbridled enthusiasm, she significantly contributed to the development of compressed products design that she promoted as a theorist. She was eagerly involved in the research of design and applied arts during the first half of 20th century. One of her greatest themes was the Art Nouveau. Her publication of Czech Applied Arts 1918–1938 is perhaps her most outstanding work. Anybody interested in the visual and graphic culture of that yeasty period cannot dispense with it, nor can they with the catalogue Czech Functionalism 1920–1940, Adlerová's co-authorial work. In the second half of the 1970's, she began to rediscover Ladislav Sutnar's design work for the local environment. Her life exertion, so appreciated by the Academy of Design, is inspirational. Alena Adlerová preferred written form to oral expression and achieved exceptional mastery in it. Her books, catalogues, and expert periodicals are the best evidence of the amount, variety, and originality of her texts. Furthermore, her texts are reliable Information sources since she studied history in detail and followed the present with precision. Until her health permitted it, Alena Adlerová had not missed any Prague exhibition opening in the field of her interest. Together with her husband Petr Adler, a renowned radio director, they formed an unforgettable charismatic couple there. As an unusually strong personality and distinguished expert Dr. Adlerová has become indelibly embedded in the memories of her friends, admirers, and many others.

Milan Hlaveš

PhDr. Alena Adlerová (*31. 3. 1922 Uherský Brod)

A visual arts theorist, historian, and museum curator, studied at grammar school in Brno (1933–1941) and graduated in fine arts and classic archaeology from the Faculty of Arts Masaryk University in Brno (1945–1949). From 1949–1953, she worked as head of the Art History Department at the Silesian Museum in Opava, and subsequently as director of the Museum of Decorative Arts in Brno from 1953–1961. Between 1961 and 1988, she was employed in the Prague Museum of Decorative Arts, where she led the Department of Contemporary Applied Arts. She actively cooperated with this institution from the late 1980's to the break of the century. She devoted herself to the problematic issue of 20th century Czech design and applied arts history and organised a number of innovative exhibitions within this area. She frequently contributed to expert periodicals (Glass Review, Umění a řemesla, Ars vitraria, Ateliér, Acta UPM aj.) and wrote, among others, the book Czech Applied Arts 1918–1938 (Prague, 1983), the publication Contemporary Glass (Prague, 1979), the catalogue Czech Art Nouveau – Applied Arts (Prague, 1981), in addition to countless prefaces to catalogues for glass design exhibitions. She is a co-writer of the catalogue Czech Functionalism 1920-1940 (Prague, 1978), and the publications Lötz. Böhmisches Glass 1880–1940 (Düsseldorf/Prague 1989), The New Encyclopaedia of Visual Arts (Prague 1995/2006), The History of Glass Manufacture in Czech Lands (Prague 2002/2005), The History of Czech Visual Arts, etc.