David Bláha

David Bláha is an art historian. He was awarded his BA at Department of Art history at Charles University, where he focused on contemporary art in public spaces of the Czech republic. He then moved to Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design, where he studied Theory and History of Art and was awarded his master‘s degree in 2021. In the school year 2021/2022 he was part of the „post-mag“ postgraduate research program of UMPRUM, where he focused on the work of Miroslav Hák, an avant-garde photographer who was also subject of Bláha‘s MA thesis. In his PhD research at UMPRUM, he focuses on the life and work of Josef Kaplický, an influential figure in Czechoslovakia’s 20th century’s fine art and applied design. Bláha is also an art critic and occasional curator – he publishes in magazines such as Artalk.cz, Flash Art CZ/SK, Art+Antiques etc. Since 2022 he’s been an art editor of the A2 magazine.

There’s only one art. Teacher-artist Josef Kaplický

Professor Josef Kaplický (1899–1962) was not only a unique painter, sculptor and graphic designer, he also focused on interior design and many kinds of applied art and product design. Besides that, he was also an original intellectual, writer and teacher. During his whole life, Kaplický was trying to level fine art and design and see them as an artistic whole in which nothing is less or more important than the other and every detail matters. After the second world war he had been teaching at UMPRUM and many of his students later became famous and influential artists working in painting, sculpture and glass (Burant, Cigler, John, Kopecký, Mrázek, Roubíčková, Šimotová, Žertová ad.). The main goal of the research project is not only to finally make a comprehensive biography of Kaplický’s work and his intellectual importance in Czechoslovakia’s art and design, but also to put his work in other contexts and problems of his day, be it pedagogical, theoretical, political or even philosophical.