National Gallery Prague

This exhibition in the Trade Fair Palace entitled “1918⁠–⁠1938: First Czechoslovak Republic” was created on the occasion of the hundredth anniversary of the founding of Czechoslovakia, presenting rich creative and artistic activities of the young state in 1918⁠–⁠1938. In addition to paintings and sculptures of prominent Czech, Slovak, Czech-German and Carpathian-Russian artists (Václav Špála, Josef Čapek, Jindřich Štyrský, Toyen, August Brӧmse, Maxim Kopf, Wenzel Hablik, etc.), the exhibition also includes artworks from the renowned French collection (Paul Gauguin, Henri Rousseau, Pablo Picasso, Vincent van Gogh and others) acquired by Czechoslovakia shortly after its founding during the 1920s and 1930s. 

The exhibition is not limited to visual artworks only; it has an interdisciplinary focus, also presenting other cultural and artistic forms of the first Czechoslovak republic, such as book illustrations, design, graphic design, etc.

This exhibition in the Trade Fair Palace entitled “1796⁠–⁠1918: Art of the Long Century” connects Czech and international art. It presents, for example, the famous Maiden by Gustav Klimt and works of Egon Schiele, Edvard Munch, Paul Gauguin, Vincent van Gogh or Pablo Picasso! The entire selection covers more than 450 artworks by 150 artists in three main chapters: Mankind, The World, and Ideas. In addition to paintings, the exhibition also presents the art of sculpture. Free standing sculptures accompany painting. Public sculptures form a separate section paraphrasing the three basic themes in the Architecture, Monument, and Tombstone sections, with respect to the selected approach and availability of the exhibits.

The objective of the exhibition is to showcase the major pieces of the local and European (particularly French) art world owned by the National Gallery Prague - from self-portraits, family and official portraits to paintings presenting city life, cafés or boulevards, from romantic landscapes to realistic interpretations. It also includes artworks with historical, religious or mythological themes. Consequently, artworks of very different periods and very different art techniques can be seen side by side. It may be striking and surprising for Czech visitors, how seemingly completely different paintings may end up next to each other – such as the beautifully and romantically realistic Josephine by Mánes next to the raw and fully exposed cubist interpretation of the Naked Woman by Picasso.