Databáze uměleckých výstav v českých zemích 1820 – 1950

Although the idea of establishing a network of regional and district galleries across Czechoslovakia dates back to the Second Republic and the Protectorate era [Bartlová 2023], it did not materialize until the early 1950s, during the building of the socialist state. New regional galleries were founded between roughly 1950 and 1965 in regional capitals and a number of district towns. Their mission – to "bring art closer to the working people" through exhibitions and permanent displays – included building their own art collections, which were to focus primarily on 19th- and 20th-century art and on works tied to their particular localities. Most regional galleries could base their collections on foundations laid by local institutions during the First Republic period (for example, today's Gallery of Modern Art in Hradec Králové drew on the legacy of the municipal picture gallery, while the gallery in Roudnice nad Labem built on a municipal gallery established as early as 1913). Some regional collections, however, had to be assembled virtually from scratch, with the state playing a major role in their formation. Artworks were transferred from the collections of existing local museums. The Ministry of Education, Science and Arts and the National Gallery lent thousands of works to regional collections across Czechoslovakia, including pieces from the National Gallery's own storerooms, confiscated property left behind by the expelled German population, and assets from nationalized châteaux and other properties. [Hylmar 2023]

Before the objects were transferred to the regional galleries as long-term loans, the National Gallery, in cooperation with the Union of Czechoslovak Visual Artists and the Artistic Forum (Umělecká beseda) in Prague, organized two exhibitions showcasing works destined for the regions. Both shows were held in the Artistic Forum’s exhibition halls on Slovanský Island – the first from mid-May to early July, the second at the turn of September and October 1950. In a sense, they followed in the footsteps of a touring exhibition of 19-century art from the National Gallery's collections, which had been shown in Brno, Bratislava, and Litomyšl in 1949. All of these projects shared a common ambition: to bring art of the 19th and early 20th centuries to the widest possible audience, especially the proletariat.

The spring exhibition featured nearly 350 paintings and sculptures, as well as a few drawings, mostly from the 19th and early 20th centuries. Alongside lesser-known works by renowned artists such as Mikoláš Aleš, Václav Brožík, Josef Mánes, Karel Purkyně, and Max Švabinský, the show also included works by artists of regional significance: paintings by František Hlavica from Vsetín, for instance, and landscapes by Václav Březina. As part of the exhibition, the organizing institutions held nineteen lectures, a conference, and a working meeting attended by sixty representatives of regional galleries, at which participants debated the need for cooperation and engagement with contemporary art. In total, the exhibition and its accompanying program attracted more than 17,000 visitors. [Archive of the Artistic Forum]

The second, autumn exhibition, titled From the Ministry of Education, Science and Arts and the National Gallery to the Regional Galleries, was nearly half the length of the spring show and attracted far less interest, with only around 5,300 visitors. Around 250 works were on display, mostly by living artists: 130 men and only six women. Most of the works came from the Ministry's holdings, with a smaller portion contributed by the National Gallery. The exhibition catalogue does not include dates for individual items, but the introductory text, written by painter Přemysl Netopil, indicates that all works were created within the preceding fifty years. The selection of paintings and sculptures reflects the period’s characteristic ideological impulse to introduce themes other than landscapes and genre scenes to the regions, particularly the theme of labour (Alois Moravec's oil Crane in the Quarry, Karel Lenhart's bronze Man at the Lathe), as well as works reflecting the Second World War and the officially promoted narrative of the Soviet Union as liberator (Alois Sopr's bronze Red Army Soldier, František David's bronze Head of a Partisan).

Reviewers of both exhibitions regarded the entire initiative as an extraordinary opportunity to showcase works that had long been hidden in the National Gallery's storerooms and welcomed the prospect of these pieces enriching regional art collections. They also highlighted that the loans were not second-rate – though, of course, the National Gallery's greatest treasures remained in its own galleries and reserves. In keeping with the new cultural policy, which held that regional galleries should serve above all "schools and the broadest strata of the people," critics stressed the need to send works "comprehensible to the popular viewer," rather than "collections of surrealists or other works that are difficult to comprehend." [hr. 1950] And so, despite the introductory catalogue text promising a survey of the diverse currents in modern Czechoslovak art, most of the key figures of the interwar avant-garde were missing.

Several contemporary periodicals praised the contribution of the Minister of Education, Zdeněk Nejedlý, who had advocated for the establishment of regional galleries and lent his patronage to both exhibitions. Just as he argued that every theatre should be a national theatre, he envisioned the regional galleries – at least with respect to 19th- and 20th-century art – as a kind of "National Gallery en miniature." [Anonymous author 1950, p. 2] The project also owed a significant debt to Antonín Matějček, who had headed the Ministry's arts department until his sudden death in August 1950. Together with the then director of the National Gallery, Vladimír Novotný, they succeeded in creating something that – despite its grounding in the ideological rhetoric of the early 1950s – laid the foundation for a remarkable network of originally centrally administered, now fully independent regional galleries.

With few exceptions, the works presented at the exhibition and subsequently lent to regional and district galleries were returned to the Prague National Gallery's storerooms roughly two decades later. [Racek 1980, p. 490] By that point, the regional institutions – which had steadily expanded their collections through new acquisitions, backed by substantial state funding and methodological guidance from the National Gallery – were able to mount their permanent displays entirely from their own holdings.

Tereza Štěpánová

Works Cited

Anonymous author 1950: Anonymous author, Na okraj výstavy „Ministerstvo školství, věd a umění krajským galeriím“, PNP, fond Umělecká beseda, korespondence 1950–1952

Bartlová 2023: Milena Bartlová, Kvalitní umění českému lidu. Sedmdesát let jedinečného systému regionálních galerií, A2, 2024, no. 24, 21. 11., dostupné online: https://advojka.cz/a2-article/2023-24-kvalitni-umeni-ceskemu-lidu/

hr. 1950: hr., Kultura venkovu, Vlasta IV, 1950, no. 24, 15. 6., p. 15

Hylmar 2023: Tomáš Hylmar, Národní galerie v Praze, manipulace 1958–1964, inventář fondu (dílčí), Praha 2023, dostupné online: https://admin.www.ngprague.cz/storage/6048/NG_1958-1964.pdf?_gl=1*129g0r0*_ga*NzYzMzE1Mjk4LjE2OTg2NTk5MTg.*_ga_JPXX8JSC2V*MTcwMjQ4MDI5Ny43LjEuMTcwMjQ4MDMxMS4wLjAuMA

Racek 1980: Miloslav Racek, České výtvarné umění 20. století ve sbírkách regionálních galerií, Umění XXVIII, 1980, no. 6, pp. 481–492

Further Reading

 Milena Bartlová, Regionální galerie a regionální centra, in: eadem, Dějiny českých dějin umění II., 1970–1990, Praha 2025, pp. 245–251

Archival Sources

Literary Archive of the Museum of Czech Literature, fonds Umělecká beseda, korespondence 1950–1952 [Artistic Forum, Correspondence, 1950–1952]

Archive of the National Gallery in Prague, fonds Exhibition Documentation, inv. no. 224, poster for From the National Gallery to Regional Galleries]; inv. no. 56, invitation for From the National Gallery to Regional Galleries – II.

Digital Archive of the Moravian Gallery, fonds OMZM I, box 4, file 3, Směrnice a pokyny pro činnost krajských galerií [Guidelines and Instructions for the Activities of Regional Galleries]

Anonymous author, České umění našim krajům, Práce VI, 1950, no. 154, 2. 7., p. 8

Anonymous author, České umění našim krajům, Práce VI, 1950, no.154, 2. 7., p. 8

Anonymous author, Další umělecká díla krajským galeriím, Rudé právo XXX–XXXI, 1950, no. 226, 23. 9., p. 5

Anonymous author, Národní galerie krajským galeriím, Lidová demokracie VI, 1950, no. 114, 16. 5., p. 4

Anonymous author, Národní galerie krajským galeriím, Lidové noviny LVIII, 1950, no. 125, 28. 5., p. 6

Anonymous author, Národní galerie krajským galeriím, Lidové noviny LVIII, 1950, no. 130, 4. 6., p. 6

Anonymous author, Národní galerie krajským galeriím, Severočeská Mladá fronta VI, 1950, no. 226, 24. 9., p. 4

Anonymous author, Výstava „Národní galerie krajským galeriím“, Práce VI, 1950, no.151, 29. 6., p. 5

Anonymous author, Výstava na Slovanském ostrově bude uzavřena v pondělí, Práce VI, 1950, no. 159, 9. 7, p. 4

Anonymous author, Výstava sbírek Národní galerie na Slovanském ostrově, Práce VI, 1950, no. 223, 22. 9., p. 4

Redakce, Výstava sbírek Národní galerie, Rudé právo XXX–XXXI, 1950, no. 225, 22. 9., p. 5

RP, Další umělecká díla krajským galeriím, Rudé právo XXX–XXXI, 1950, no. 226, 23. 9., p. 5