Vladimír Fischer, the Church of St.
Augustine in Brno, and the
Ambiguities of the Avant-Garde"
Matthew Rampley, University of Birmingham
30. 11. 2018, 13:00 – 14:00
Filozofická fakulta MU, Knihovna Hanse Beltinga,
Veveří 470/28, Brno, Budova K, přízemí
Lecture Abstract
The Church of St. Augustine by Vladimír Fischer is one of the most visible
modernist churches in Brno. Yet, like many other churches built in the First
Czechoslovak Republic, it receives hardly a mention in discussion of twentiethcentury
architecture. Why might this be, and why does it deserve more
attention?
Initial responses to the church were critical since it incorporated a number of historical
references that seemed to contradict avant-garde ideals. A formal analysis would
appear to confirm this idea, and subsequent scholars have gone along with such
judgements. However, I argue that the church merits analysis because it raises
important questions about the way the history of modernist architecture has been
written. In particular, due to the influence of critics such as Karel Teige, historians of
modernist architecture have been reluctant to talk about sacred buildings. Yet
examples such as the church of St. Augustine suggest both that churches marked an
important chapter in the history of functionalist architecture and also that the values
traditionally associated with avant-gardism – materialism, positivism, functionalism –
are not the only ones. The language of functionalist architecture lends itself equally to
metaphysical and spiritual interpretations. Including churches in the narrative of the
avant-garde thus requires its history to be rethought, since they reveal its polysemic
character.
Finally, I argue that consideration of the church casts light not only on how we write
about the avant-garde but also on the role of the Catholic and other churches in
interwar Czechoslovakia. Masaryk explicitly declared that the founding of the state was
a spiritual task, but this has been generally marginalized by historians, because it
contradicts the image of Czechoslovakia as the leading progressive and secular state
of interwar central Europe, which managed to cast aside the legacy of the Habsburg
Empire. In this sense I view the church as an important symbol of the complex position
of Czechoslovakia, which it sought to define itself as a new beginning, but was also
unable entirely to free itself from the past, particularly when it came to the place of
religion in public life.