Collections

The collections of the Gallery of West Bohemia in Pilsen rank among the most important visual art collections of the Czech Republic. They are composed of up to 10,000 graphic, painted and sculptural works, to which an architecture collection was added in 2009, comprising documentation, drawings and photographs, as well as models of buildings. The core of the collections is Czech art of the 19th and the first half of the 20th centuries. Drawings and paintings of the 19th century and the art of the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries are represented by the names of, for example, Karel Purkyně, Antonín Chitussi, Mikoláš Aleš, Josef Mánes, Jan Preisler, and Antonín Slavíček. The art of pre-war modernism is represented in a unique collection of cubism (Josef Čapek, Emil Filla, Otto Gutfreund, Bohumil Kubišta, Václav Špála); art from between the wars and after World War II is represented by Jan Zrzavý, Josef Šíma, Jindřich Štyrský, Toyen, František Hudeček, and František Tichý. Czech art of the 1960s also has a quality representation (Jiří John, Adriena Šimotová, Josef Istler, Jan Koblasa, Jiří Kolář, Mikuláš Medek, Zbyněk Sekal and others). Although smaller in number, the collection of ancient arts, comprising medieval, Renaissance and Baroque paintings and sculptures, features prestigious works, such as the Madonna of Dýšina from the circle around the Master of the Madonna of Michle, dated around 1340, the Votive plaque of Kašpar Kašpárek by Master I. W. of the circle of Lucas Cranach the Elder, dated 1538, and the sculpture of the Annunciation of Our Lady by Matyáš Bernard Braun from 1720–1725. A complement to exclusive works in Czech art is a remarkable collection of regional art from the 19th and 20th centuries, comprising the works of Augustin Němejc and the Špillar brothers, as well as the inter-war productions of members of the Association of Visual Artists of West Bohemia in Pilsen (Sdružení západočeských výtvarných umělců v Plzni) (Josef Hodek, František Koliha, Bohumil Krs, Josef Tetínek, sculptor Otokar Walter, and architect Leo Meisl). Presently, the construction of a new building is being prepared for the purposes of a permanent exhibition of the collections of the Gallery of West Bohemia in Pilsen, which shall be located in the area of “U Zvonu” in the centre of the city.