The situation of professional art schools after 1918 in relation to the stylistic transformation of applied art
Abstract
The emergence of the independent Czechoslovak Republic presented domestic art with new tasks. The current stylistic situation could not meet them, it was necessary to form a new, national style expressing the ambitions of the new, national state.
The following contribution does not deal with the origin and development of the national style as a whole, it focuses on the role of art education in its dissemination. Emphasis is placed on those arts and crafts schools that prepared specialists for ceramic production.
What specific role did art and industrial education play in its spread and what types of relationships arose between individual sources of national style? What role did professional art schools play in these relationships, specifically those specialized in the production of porcelain and ceramics? A cautious hypothesis is offered: language has played the most important role in the Czech national identity since the national revival. If the investigated schools differed in the language of instruction, can we say that this influenced their acceptance or rejection of the national style?