2015 program
National Gallery in Prague
Staroměstské náměstí 12
110 15 Prague 1
Czech Republic
Veletržní palác (Trade Fair Palace)
Palác 47
170 00 Prague 7
Holešovice
www.ngprague.cz
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Anticipating its 220th anniversary (February 2016), the National Gallery in Prague is proud to announce its 2015 exhibition program. Nearly 40 exhibition projects—ranging from a large-scale exhibition of painting from Prague period of Oskar Kokoschka and a substantial exhibition of drawings by Stanislav Kolibal to celebrate 90th birthday of this prominent Czech artist through the group exhibitions Mysterious Distances, exploring Symbolism and art in the Bohemian Lands, 1880–1914 and Artists and Prophets. A Secret History of Modern Art 1872–1972, focused on the relations between the so-called “barefoot-prophets” and the artistic avant-garde down to a retrospective of a father of modern art, Henri Rousseau (Henri Rousseau: Archaic Candour) and a thematic show, Exhibition as an Organism, a first in the Czech Republic, large-scale survey of a ground-breaking work of Czech artist Maria Bartuszova (1936–96)—will be presented in 2015 to the audience in the National Gallery’s venues, including the 13th-century Convent of St. Agnes of Bohemia, 18th-century Rococo Kinsky Palace and the icon of modern, functionalist architecture, Veletržní Palace (Trade Fair Palace), designed in 1929 by Josef Fuchs and Oldřich Tyl.
The new season will be inaugurated on Thursday, February 19, at 7pm with the opening of the following six exhibitions:
Oskar Kokoschka and Prague. The Art Scene Between the Wars (1934–1938)
February 20–June 28
Veletržní Palace (1st floor)
Kokoschka (1886–1980), one of the leading artists of the 20th century, arrived in Prague on September 25, 1934, accompanied by Edith Sachsl, a Viennese fashion illustrator. His four-year sojourn in Czechoslovakia between the World Wars was, in many ways, a turning point in his life. The exhibition examines mutual contacts of Czech- and German-speaking artists on the Czechoslovak cultural scene of the time and Kokoschka’s status as a public figure who, in many ways, influenced Czech artists. His role in connection with the anti-Fascist émigré community in Czechoslovakia has never been presented on such a large scale.
Curated by Agnes Tieze and Bronislava Rokytová
Studio Sekal
Permanent addition to the Collection of Modern and Contemporary Art
Veletržní Palace (2nd Floor)
Sculptor Zbyněk Sekal (1923–98) was one of the most important Czech artists of the second half of the 20th century. The idea of transporting Sekal’s last studio in Vienna to Prague emerged shortly after the artist’s death. It was inspired by the fact that in the last months of his life he had deliberately transformed his studio into a Gesamtkunstwerk, a space conceived as the consummate work of art. The sculpture of a head that he placed at the heart of the studio is essentially a self-portrait of the artist, but it is also a death mask.
Curated by Marie Klimešová
Stanislav Kolíbal: Drawing by Drawing
February 20–May 3
Veletržní Palace (Mezzanine and Respirium)
Stanislav Kolíbal is one of the most prominent figures of Czech and European art. He regards drawing as a definitive work of art, while drawings, in his mind, also generate a shift in concept or a major turning point in the artist’s creative output, representing—in concentrated form—his approach to a particular theme and its development. The exhibition opens with his White Drawings produced between 1968–76, in which he contemplates time and temporality, while his Illusion and Fiction series dating from 1977–79 thematizes illusion in space. His Berlin Cycle from 1988 introduced a diversified work involving geometry, whose purpose is to seek order, concordance and interrelations.
Curated by Adam Budak and Martin Dostal
Moving Image Department
Chapter I: The Importance of Being a (Moving) Image
February 20–May 24
Veletržní Palace (Hala B)
New long-term project with the first chapter The Importance of Being a (Moving) Image brings together seven video installations. While selecting the films for an exhibition, the curators’s aim was to disenchant viewers’ perspective by emphasizing the methods used in the production of (moving) images. All films on display contain certain type of narration built upon a particular visual awareness. Artists’ approach is based upon both strong textual and visual plots. Architectural concept of Josef Dabernig. Visual identity by Liam Gillick.
With Mieke Bal and Michelle W. Gamaker, Josef Dabernig, Aurelien Froment, Liam Gillick, Mariana Calo and Francisco Queimadela, Daniel Pitín, Rachel Rose, Roman Štětina
Curated by Adam Budak and Jen Kratochvil
2 x 100 million square metres – THE COLLECTIVE DREAM
Czech Pavilion of the 14th Architecture Biennale in Venice
February 20–May 3
Veletržní Palace (Small Hall)
Restaging of the exhibition with an 85-member team of students, architects, philosophers and sociologists led by Martin Hejl of Kolmo.eu Studio. The project presents the development of housing complex designs realized in 1914–2014 in the former Czechoslovakia.
Curated by Martin Hejl & Coll.
Introducing
Max Dvorak: The Walls Seemed To Be Breathing
Veletržní Palace (Presidential Lounge)
February 20–April 19
The Walls Seemed To Be Breathing is a fictional extension of a factual scientific research carried out in Holmesburg Prison in Philadelphia. The film depicts several stories of delirium, latent violence, lucid dreams and bodily hallucination.
Introduced by Adam Budak
Kick-off public programs at The National Gallery in Prague, Veletržní Palace:
On the Staircase.
Tomas Pospiszyl: “An Associative History of Art” (2014, tranzit.cz).
With participation of Jakub Felcman, Milena Kalinovska, Marie Klimesova, Viktor Pantucek, Tomas Pospiszyl, Martin C. Putna, Jana Vrana and Dance Theatre Nanohach
Wednesday, February 18, 7:30pm
Milena Kalinovska.
“Museum Education—Version 2.0″
Friday, February 20, 11am
“The Role of Images in a Civil Society”
Milena Bartlova, Zbynek Baladran and Miroslav Petricek
Friday, February 20, 3pm
“Image Twister (part 1)”
The artists of The Importance of Being a (Moving) Image, Josef Dabernig, Francisco Queimadela, Daniel Pitin, Roman Štětina and curators Jen Kratochvil and Piotr Sikora
Friday, February 20, 5pm
Mieke Bal
“Art Moves: The Importance of Be(com)ing a (Moving) Image“
Her keynote speech at the inauguration of a Moving Image Department
Friday, February 20, 7pm
Stanislav Kolibal
“Drawing by Drawing. Time After Time. Art Is More Than What We See.”
Introduced and moderated by Milena Kalinovska
Saturday brunch, February 21, 12pm
