100 Years of Relativity

Deep dive into Czech fine arts of the 20th century

First half of the 20th Century

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The presentation portrays the best of our rich collection of 20th century art. This is, in brief, the basic aim of the new permanent exposition located on two floors of the Modern Art Museum. One exhibition hall would not suffice for a permanent exposition since the Museum’s col

The Flora of the Sleep (1931) by ToyenOlomouc Museum of Art

One exhibition hall would not suffice for a permanent exposition since the Museum’s collections include a broad spectrum of works – 

– often contradicting in ideas and styles of which we can identify as important, or even, without exaggeration, crucial not only for Czech modern and contemporary art.

Red Seven Cabaret (1908) by Emil FillaOlomouc Museum of Art

The introductory part uses selected works to document the echoes of impressionism, and, as a contrast, we exhibit the representatives of the symbolist tendencies of the early 20th century here. 

Man and Woman (1915) by Antonín ProcházkaOlomouc Museum of Art

The exposition, is however, based on a thorough and rich presentation of modern trends seen from expressionism, cubism, cubo-expressionism up to civilism or, on the contrary...

... , the exotism of the 1920s without forgetting abstraction and surrealism from the turn of 1920s and 1930s. 

Gilbert & George (1999) by Jiří SurůvkaOlomouc Museum of Art

The final chapter is then formed by works of Group 42 and by works reflecting the war apocalypse.

Sand Miners (1910) by Miloš JiránekOlomouc Museum of Art

We also paid special attention to modern landscape-painting whose most prominent works describe the atmosphere of the time of their origin as well.

Second half of the 20th Century

Line no. 56 (Humberto) (1988) by Zdeněk SýkoraOlomouc Museum of Art

The second part of the permanent exhibition has an ambition to give a worthy overview of the most important artistic tendencies after the end of WWII up to the end of the 20th century.

The exposition is introduced with examples of work from distinguished solitaires of the 1950s or authors who resumed the ideas of the pre-war avant-garde. 

Commentary on Commercial Textiles (from the Tapestries cycle) (1988) by Otis LaubertOlomouc Museum of Art

We continue with post-war abstraction, works connected with various forms of lyrical and structural abstraction.

12 Seated Figures (1974) by Magdalena AbakanowiczOlomouc Museum of Art

Next, examples of varied forms of lettrism and neo-constructivism dominate among many antagonistic tendencies of the 1960s which contrast with paintings and sculptures of the so called new figuration, namely Czech grotesque and later existential figuration of the 1970s and 1980s.

Variable Calligraphy (1969) by Dalibor ChatrnýOlomouc Museum of Art

The exposition concludes with conceptual and post-modern manifestations whose influences had a clear impact on art in the last decade.

Space Grid Poem (1976) by Jan WojnarOlomouc Museum of Art

The Picture Gallery however, does not house Czech art only; we also strive to include the Czech collection into a broader context in relation to our acquisition efforts related to the Central European Forum Olomouc Project. 

Untiteled (1984) by Jan KnapOlomouc Museum of Art

Therefore, there are examples of exile authors and prominent Polish, Hungarian, and Slovak authors as well.

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