The Mucha epic will be at the Trade Fair Palace for another two years

Prague - The Slav Epic by Alfons Mucha will be exhibited at the Trade Fair Palace in Prague for another two years. The director of the Gallery of the Capital City of Prague, which manages the epic, Magdalena Juříková, and Vít Vlnas, entrusted with the management of the National Gallery in Prague, today signed a contract for the extension of the exhibition, announced NG spokesperson Eva Kolerusová.
Both art institutions appreciate the ongoing 20-month collaboration, she stated. The large canvases by Alfons Mucha are drawing great interest from visitors both domestic and international. According to the spokesperson, there has also been increased interest in the permanent exhibitions of modern and contemporary art, as well as in the short-term exhibitions of the National Gallery. This year, the Trade Fair Palace is expecting another record number of visitors, she added. Last year, the data on the number of visitors to the Slav Epic exhibition were counted into the attendance of both mentioned institutions.
The collection of 20 canvases depicting the history of the Slavs moved to Prague in 2011 from Southern Moravia. The relocation of the epic sparked a wave of discontent. Moravský Krumlov, where the work had been exhibited at the local castle for many years, opposed it, as did the painter's descendant, John Mucha. According to him, Prague did not fulfill the wishes of his grandfather, who donated the canvases to the city on the condition that a dignified pavilion would be built for them. The metropolis states that it does not have the money for construction. After a series of discussions that have taken place since the 90s, the epic was ultimately placed in the Great Hall of the Trade Fair Palace.
Mucha's canvases are arranged in the Trade Fair Palace as the author originally intended, for example, according to the chronological order of individual themes. The entire exhibition space of the Great Hall of the Trade Fair Palace was specially adapted for the epic; it is, for example, shaded so that sharp sunlight penetrating through the roof does not damage the paintings.
GHMP plans another project with the National Gallery. In 2015, under the title Russian Avant-Gardes (1915 - 2015), both institutions will present a cross-section of Russian visual art from the 20th century with a particular focus on the aesthetics of Russian avant-garde and modernism over the past 100 years.