Zbyněk Sekal: Beloved Beings. A Gift from the Artist’s Estate

The exhibition will present an extensive collection of works by one of the most significant and distinctive European and Czech artists of the second half of the twentieth century. The Gallery of West Bohemia in Pilsen acquired the collection in 2024 through a generous bequest from the late artist’s wife, Ms Christine Sekal. Comprising 102 works worth tens of millions of crowns, the collection covers virtually the entire development of Sekal’s sculptural work from the 1950s to the 1990s. The uniqueness of the collection is confirmed by the interest of foreign institutions, among other things: Twenty-two pieces were immediately loaned to the Sprengel Museum in Hanover, Germany, for an exhibition organised to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the artist’s birth.

The generous bequest to the Gallery of West Bohemia in Pilsen accounts for around one-third of the estate administered by Ms Christine Sekal. Before her passing, she divided the estate between the Gallery of West Bohemia in Pilsen, the Belvedere in Austria, and various institutions in the Czech Republic, including the Olomouc Museum of Art, the Museum Kampa and the National Gallery in Prague. The literary estate was acquired by the Museum of Czech Literature. The Gallery of West Bohemia in Pilsen has not been chosen at random. In 2014, the gallery presented a unique exhibition of Zbyněk Sekal’s work, titled Zbyněk Sekal and Japan. Greetings from a Distant Country, Greetings to a Distant Land, revealing the inner parallel between the artist’s work and the specific aesthetic and material sensitivity of Japanese cultural tradition. Ms Christine Sekal has been in contact with the Gallery of West Bohemia ever since. In 2018, the Gallery's curator, together with Marie Klimešová, visited Ms Sekal in Vienna to select works for acquisition. Contacts with Ms Christine Sekal subsequently evolved into a mutual understanding and friendship.

Prepared by Marie Klimešová, a leading expert on Sekal’s work, the exhibition will present the Gallery’s entire collection of Sekal’s work to the public. This will be done in the form of a structured chronology and typology of Sekal’s work, including earlier acquisitions.