Prague Tiki

I am flying to Prague today to shoot a German TV movie (a teenage vampire spoof !) for the next six weeks. From having done a film there in 1997, I am a big fan of Prague Cubist architecture:
http://www.praha.eu/jnp/en/residents/city/cubism/index.html

There was no Tiki in town then. I just virtually walked my neighborhood via Google street view and found out that my apartment (in the middle of tourist town) is just around the corner from the Aloha Wave Cocktail Lounge and Cafe, which opened in 2005 (or so) inspired by the BOT, using images from it for their menu:
http://www.alohapraha.cz/cz/

By the looks of it, it is the stylistic opposite of the Taky Tiki, (now know as the Tiki Taky !):
http://www.tikitaky.cz/pp/a/on_a.html

It'll be interesting to see these two widely varying interpretations of Tiki in town. :)

Can't wait to hear your report. I will be in Prague this fall.

Just a word of caution: You really do not go to Prague to find Tiki. Or Polynesian cocktails. Just like you don't go to the Tiki Ti and ask for a beer.

But that's what you do here- ask for a beer. This town has, and I say that as a German, the best beer in the world. I already like my imported Budvar Budweiser or my Pilsener Urquell in L.A., but to have these on draft here is ten times more yummy!

Keeping this in mind, I did go to Czech out the Aloha Cafe and Bar, and I did have Zombie, in one of their unique Czech Tiki mugs!:

It is quite wonderful that whenever I turn the corner from my apartment on Bilkova Street, I see the sign sporting the Mystery Girl from the Book of Tiki back cover:

And the entrance door which has this lovely matchbook rendering from the BOT's "Mixologists and Concoctions" chapter on it. Good choice!

But more about the Aloha later, in the appropriate thread in Locating Tiki, where Fezmonkey posted their complete line of Czech Tiki pottery:

http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=35773&forum=2

In my opinion, the real wealth of the city of Prague lies in the fact that it is an amazing time warp of 19th and early 20th Century architecture. My favorite discovery that I made here in the late 90s is the unique genre of Czech Cubism. It relates to Tiki in several ways:

For one thing, CZECH Cubism was, unlike Cubism in other parts of Europe, was not just restricted to painting...

...but a "Gesamtkunstwerk", an art form that (just like Tiki) encompassed all walks of life and design:

Art historian Miroslav Lamac wrote:
"Prague became the city of Cubism, with Cubist apartment blocks full of Cubist flats furnished with Cubist furniture. The inhabitants could drink coffee from Cubist cups, put flowers in Cubist vases, keep the time on Cubist clocks, light their rooms with lamps and read books Cubist type."

Sounds familiar? Moreover, the Czech artists, just like the French and German Avantgardists, were in part inspired by the non-naturalistic style of primitive art:

Above: African sculptures in current Cubist exhibit. - Sketch by Bohumil Kubista, 1915
Below: African mask and Cubist poster in the same exhibit:

Pavel Janak's 1911 article "The Prism and the Pyramid" was the manifesto of the Cubists, stating that "only through the violence and disruption of an angled plane cutting through horizontal and vertical lines could one animate lifeless matter".

One of the prime examples of the style in architecture is the entrance to the Diamant Department store, built in 1913:

Next to it is an example of the old ornate, baroque style that Cubism aimed to replace.

Now the amazing thing about Prague is that all these buildings (or most of them) are still standing!:

The modernists even framed the statue of St. John of Nepomuk in the style, which of course caused considerable critisicm at the time. Below is the entrance foyer of the Diamant:

Next: The "House of the Black Madonna" below...

...today houses a Cubist store, with reproductions of many of the Cubist ceramics...

...and the Cafe Orient on the first floor, accurately rebuilt from old photographs...

(Cubist coat hangers!)

...and on the upper floors, the Cubist Museum, from which I can only post a small selection of the exhibits:

The fascinating thing about this movement is not only the all-encompassing way it went into details like the door handles above, but how ahead of the times (happening in 1911-1914) it was. This can be best appreciated if we view this 1911 photo with some of the artists and their female friends:

And to remind my readers of how this all relates to Tiki Modern. here is swatch of cubist wall paper...

..and two photos of a semi-Cubist portal I took:

Now let's take a closer look at the columns...

...in which I can either make out a stylized Moai, or the squished face of a Kane or Lono, with its elongated eyes and headdress.
I think I will design a mug from this concept. :)

Last not least:
Tiki artiste Ken Ruzic must have channeled this 1913 Cubist painting by Josef Capek...

...I coincidentally photographed the same day he posted his "5 Tikis" in the Tiki Gallery!:

:) (Kenny, if still available, I would like to acquire this little beauty.)

[ Edited by: bigbrotiki 2010-03-23 14:40 ]

Wonderful post! Those two columns would have stopped me dead in my tracks. Thanks for taking the time to put together all the photos and descriptions. A real treat.

Very interesting post Sven. The Tiki Modern connections are really strong. Were you aware of this cubist enclave before writing the book? What a great place to be filming. Show us more when you have the opportunity.
KG

Wow!
Thanks for that Cubist Carnival of Wonderful Art,Architecture,and Design!
That's incredible that a lot of those buildings still stand
and still exude the same power...

I guess Cubism is in the air these days...
"only through the violence and disruption of an angled plane
cutting through horizontal and vertical lines could one animate lifeless matter".
great line from that manifesto!

Thanks soooo much for sharing
not only the outside world and your travels
but the all important inner world
of your brain and insight and eyes!

those Bow Ties kinda remind me of Budviser...

loven das cube!

Hello,

That is really good by the way. Prague is a very popular European tourist destination. Whether you come to Prague to see famous monuments, visit its various museums and galleries, enjoy the night life or everything together, we guarantee you won’t get bored! There is a lot of things to do in Prague.

good luck!!

White Goose Down