Prof. PhDr. Rostislav Švácha, CSc.

Researcher at the Department of Art of the 19th–21st Centuries.

Rostislav Švácha studied at the Faculty of Arts, Palacký University in Olomouc (1971–1976), where he wrote his dissertation on Jan Santini-Aichel in 1977. Between 1977 and 1984, he worked as a fine arts editor at Odeon Press, and since 1984 he has worked at the IAH CAS. From 1991 to 2019 he taught at the Department of Art History, Palacký University in Olomouc (associate professor 2000, full professor 2005, head of the department 2014–2017). From 1995 to 2015, Švácha taught history of modern architecture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague. Between 1985 and 1995, he was editor-in-chief of the journal Umění. At the IAH, he led extensive team projects resulting in the publication of Kapitoly z českého dějepisu umění (1987; co-editors Josef Krása, Rudolf Chadraba, Anděla Horová), Dějiny českého výtvarného umění V (2005; co-editor Marie Platovská), Dějiny českého výtvarného umění VI (2007; Marie Platovská) and Dějiny umění v českých zemích 800–2000 (co-editor Taťána Petrasová). He has also taken part in preparing catalogues of Prague's heritage monuments, Strategy AV 21 tasks and many other projects. Švácha is the recipient of the Czech Ministry of Culture Award, Czech Chamber of Architects Award, International Olympic Committee Award, Palacký Medal, and co-recipient of the Magnesia Litera Award for the publication Paneláci I–II. He is also active in civic organizations Klub Za starou Prahu and Za krásnou Olomouc, engaging in often unsuccessful battles for the preservation of postwar architectural monuments.

Research outputs (selection):

Rostislav Švácha, Jaké ideje jsou za formami? Antologie euroamerického architektonického myšlení, in: Rostislav Švácha – Milena Sršňová – Jana Tichá (edd.), Euroamerické architektonické myšlení 1936–2011, Praha 2018, pp. 10–35.

Taťána Petrasová – Rostislav Švácha (eds), Art in the Czech Lands, 800–2000, Prague - Řevnice 2017.

Rostislav Švácha (ed.), Naprej: Czech Sports Architecture, 1567–2012, Praha 2012.

Rostislav Švácha, Architektura 1958-1970, in: Rostislav Švácha – Marie Platovská (edd.), Dějiny českého výtvarného umění VI/1–2: 1958–2000, Praha, 2007, pp. 30–69.

Rostislav Švácha, Česká architektura a její přísnost: Padesát staveb, 1989–2004, Praha 2004. See: Czech Architecture and Its Austerity, Prague 2004.

Rostislav Švácha, The Architects Have Overslept: Space As a Construct of Art Historians, 1888–1914, Umění / Art XLIX, 2001, No. 6, pp. 487–500.

Rostislav Švácha – Soňa Ryndová – Dita Dvořáková, Forma sleduje vědu: Teige, Gillar a evropský vědecký funkcionalismus 1922–1948  / Form Follows Science: Teige, Gillar and the European Scientific Functionalism 1922–1948, Praha – Prague 2000.

Rostislav Švácha, The Pyramid, the Prism and the Arc: Czech Cubist Architecture 1911–1923, Prague 2000.

Eric Dluhosch – Rostislav Švácha (edd.), Karel Teige, 1900–1951: L’Enfant Terrible of the Czech Modernist Avant-Garde. Introduction by Kenneth Frampton, Cambridge, Mass. – London 1999.

Rostislav Švácha, The Architecture of New Prague 1895–1945. Foreword by Kenneth Frampton, essay by Eric Dluhosch, Cambridge, Mass. – London 1995.

Current projects:

For Temple, city and country. Olomouc Bishop Karel von Lichtenstein-Castelcorno in the middle of Baroque Europe. (NAKI DG16P02M013) - co-investigator