ŠALOUN VILLA

Surprise perfection. That was my first reaction when I unexpectedly came upon this gem during a daylong walk in Prague. I have a soft spot for anything mildly Secessionist. And when it manifests itself as this pavilion with a glass roof, well, I was completely smitten.

The studio was designed by the sculptor Ladislav Šaloun. He needed the studio when he won a commission for the Jan Hus Memorial in Prague. The studio was finished in 1912.

I couldn’t decide how I wanted to draw this piece. I wanted to knowledge the existing form. Yet I was in the mood for something a bit more fantastical and form generational. So I did both. I first drew the existing fabric from the photos that I took. (The building is rather straightforward.) Then I did the structure above the studio. So with one drawing, I got two modes of knowledge. This is not the first time I have employed this mode of drawing. For example, this drawing I did of the Ando Museum in Naoshima used the same “draw how it works and then intervene.” I guess I need to name this mode, so as to add to other Transparent Drawing modes such as Automatic Form, One Line One Wash, Woven, etc.

Šaloun Villa is commonly listed as Art Nouveau. Yet I see touches of Secession in the fabric, so I am going to stick with that category.

I think that it would be wonderful to have a studio with a glass ceiling. The building is not open to the public, yet I got a sense of the interior because you could see thru the narrow windows. And because it is now owned by an arts academy, I have every confidence that every class taught in this building is deeply inspirational.

This was not the first building in Prague that triggered spinal architectural chills. During the same walk, that morning, is when I came across the Church of the Most Sacred Heart.