Brno: The anniversary of the House of Art is commemorated by an exhibition of hundreds of authors

Brno - The works of hundreds of Czech and foreign artists have been gathered in a new exhibition at the House of Art of the City of Brno. The exhibition commemorates the 100th anniversary of the exhibition hall, which holds an important place in Brno's cultural life. All the represented artists have exhibited at the House of Art in the past. Among them are famous names such as Toyen, Jan Zrzavý, Emil Filla, Václav Boštík, Milan Knížák, and Otakar Kubín. Journalists viewed the exhibition today, and it will open to the public on Wednesday.
    The House of Art, located at today's Malinovsky Square, was built in 1910 in the style of Viennese Secession and was originally named after Emperor Franz Joseph. Between the wars, it served the Brno German-speaking artistic community. After World War II, the city took over the house, and architect Bohuslav Fuchs remodeled it in the spirit of Brno functionalism. The House of Art also manages the House of Lords from Kunštát on Dominikánská Street. The anniversary exhibition has filled both buildings.
    The exhibition not only recalls the celebrated exhibiting artists but also the architectural history of the buildings. In the main seat at Malinovsky Square, visitors will also find archival materials and documents from the initial "German" period, including poster productions. From the post-war years, the curators emphasized mainly the period when the House of Art was led by the esteemed director Adolf Kroupa.
    "At the House of Lords from Kunštát, some personalities from the last decades of the 20th century appear, whose work deviated from the demands of the official cultural ideology, yet they were successfully exhibited at the House of Art during the 1980s," states the introduction to the exhibition. Thus, the House of Art exhibited works by Jiří Kolář and Milan Knížák even before 1989.
    The exhibition concludes with examples of the work of artists who exhibited at the House of Art around the turn of the millennium. This includes Tony Cragg, Jiří George Dokoupil, Magdalena Jetelová, and Arnulf Rainer. A long-standing tradition of photography exhibitions is represented by a collection of works from various periods of the history of Czech photography, from the interwar years to the present.
    The exhibition is designed so that visitors can confront individual works with contemporary events in Brno. Historical documents serve photographs of important events in political and social life in Brno, including the architectural changes in the city. The exhibition will last until February 2011.