Jiří Kodl

Jiří Kodl played singles tennis at the 1912 Stockholm Olympics, and was the Bohemian flagbearer at the Opening Ceremony. Kodl also played golf at a high level in Bohemia. By profession he was an architect and artist who moved from Pišek to Praha to start his architecture practice. Kodl also was a popular water color painter. He was an art enthusiast, compiling a large private collection. He was a member of the Mánes Union of Fine Arts (Spolek výtvarných umělců Mánes [SVU]), a Bohemian artists’ association and exhibition society founded in 1887 in Praha and named after painter Josef Mánes. Kodl used his associations and friendships from SVU to assist him in his collecting hobby.

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Jiri Kodl (1889-1954), architect and artist, was his successful successor and upholder of the family collecting tradition. He moved from Pisek to Prague, and as a successful architect he finished construction of a functionalist villa in 1928 also designed both for living and as a picture gallery for a family collection.

He was a keen collector, painter-aquarellist and a member of Manes. He acquired the works of art from his peers with who he regularly met not only in the premises of the Manes society, but often in private. Of his best friends from among the artists we may mention first of all Jan Bauch, Vincenc Benes, Oldrich Blazicek, Josef Capek, Emil Filla, Otto Gutfreund, Miloslav Holy, Frantisek Janousek, Alfred Justitz, Georg Kars, Rudolf Kremlicka, Ludvík Kuba, Otakar Kubin, Jan Lauda, Kamil Lhotak, Otakar Marvanek, Frantisek Muzika, Vitezslav Nezval, Josef Sudek, Josef Sima, Vaclav Spala, Max Svabinsky, Frantisek Tichy, Jan Trampota, Jiri Trnka, Jan Zrzavy and others. He organises regular quests for art to autumnal Parisian salons, from which he brings some acquisitions from time to time. He acquires many paintings by exchange or purchase from other collectors. He regularly meets architects J. Gocar, K. Honzik, O. Novotny a A. Zivny. He maintains friendship with factory-owners and simultaneously great collectors J. Waldes, R. Morawetz, O. Feder and F. Ringhoffer, his respectable tennis rival. Among his other collectors-friends also belong V. Kramar, banker J. Preiss, factory-owner Baruch, from whom he bought a part of the famous collection of Jan Preisler, J. Jindra, Fr. Cerovsky, antiquarian A. Necas, theoretician Fr. Dvorak, V.V. Stech, A. Matejicek, actor and excellent tennis player Vlasta Burian, bookseller R. Rysavy, publisher Storch-Marien, Brno collectors Bloudek, Fr. Venera and O. Brazda, publisher V. Petr and lawyers Kozeluh, J. Nebesar and a number of others.

Jiri Kodl was not only famous as a renowned collector, avantgarde architect and well-known painter-aquarellist. He also achieved a number of great results in his two favourite sports - golf and tennis. As he often used to say, he took the moment, when he, as a tennis representative at Olympic Games in Stockholm in 1912, carried the Czech flag jointly with Jan Masaryk, for one of the most intense experiences in his life.