Century of Relativity II

The exhibition presents a complex story of the interweaving of various, often contradictory, artistic styles against the backdrop of a more or less linear timeline. The emphasis is primarily on paintings and sculptures that introduce visitors to the basic currents and tendencies of Czech modern art in the monitored period. A significant specific feature of the second part of the exhibition is the placement of Czech post-war art into a broader Central European artistic context.

Art of the First Half of the 20th Century

The Mansarda exhibition space is dedicated to the art of the first half of the 20th century. The introduction of the exhibition captures the fading echoes of Impressionism and Symbolist tendencies at the beginning of the century. Its main focus, however, is a thorough and rich presentation of modern movements from Expressionism, Cubism, and Cubo-Expressionism to Civilianism. The exhibition also does not overlook abstract expressions and Surrealism from the turn of the 1920s and 1930s. Its conclusion belongs to the work of artists from Skupina 42. Special attention is also paid to modern landscape painting, whose most striking examples, albeit with a different artistic language, also capture the atmosphere of the time of their creation.

A completely unique part of the exhibition is a collection of chamber works by one of the founding personalities of European abstraction, the Olomouc native Adolf Hölzel, which the museum acquired thanks to a generous gift from Berlin collectors Heinz and Monika Röthinger.

Audio guide to the exhibition Century of Relativity II

Second Half of the 20th Century and Beginning of the 21st Century

The second part of the exhibition, located in the Obrazárna, aims to present viewers with a concentrated overview of the most important artistic tendencies from the end of the Second World War to the end of the 20th century, with several overlaps into the current century. The exhibition is introduced by examples of the work of important solitaires of the 1950s and artists who continued the pre-war avant-garde. This is followed by post-war abstract art, i.e., works associated with various forms of gestural and structural abstraction. Among the many contradictory tendencies of the 1960s, examples of Neoconstructivism, Kineticism, and so-called New Geometry, which further developed in the 1970s and 1980s, are presented. This part is logically followed by works of a conceptual nature from the 1970s and 1980s, supplemented by selected examples of action art via a film loop.

In contrast to these positions are the paintings and sculptures of the so-called New Figuration, Czech Grotesque, and later Existential Figuration of the 1970s and 1980s. The penultimate part of the exhibition is dedicated to postmodern manifestations, whose influence was clearly reflected in the art of subsequent decades. Compared to the original exhibition from 2013–2025, the new form is expanded, in connection with the first part of the permanent exhibition, also to include works depicting the development of post-war landscape painting and other diverse artistic approaches to the relationship with nature.

As already mentioned, the Obrazárna does not present only Czech art. In connection with the long-term acquisition efforts associated with the Central European Forum Olomouc (SEFO) project, whose building will be realized in the coming years as an extension to the existing Museum of Modern Art, Czech post-war art is placed in a broader artistic context. The international context shows that art created in similar political, cultural, and social conditions shares many common features, but at the same time, the distinctiveness of individual expressions arising from local specifics cannot be overlooked.

Haptic Trail

The exhibition also includes the educational project Haptic Trail: Closer to Art by Touch, authored by Denisa Tessenyi, which makes selected plastic works from the Olomouc Museum of Art collections accessible through 3D printed models, haptic elements, and verbal descriptions. It allows visitors in the exhibition antechamber and the adjacent CEAD space to experience art not only visually but also through touch and multisensory experiences. It is intended primarily for people with visual impairments, but it can be used by anyone who wants to discover art without barriers and in new ways.

Audio guide to the Haptic Trail

century of relativity ii

AUTHORS AND CURATORS: Štěpánka Bieleszová…