Contacts
Smečky Gallery, Ve Smečkách 24, 110 00 Prague 1
Tel.: +420 222 210 268, tel./fax: +420 222 210 272
E-mail: galerie.smecky@ppas.cz
www.galeriesmecky.cz
Opening hours: Tuesday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.
Pražská Plynárenská Collection
Pražská plynárenská, a.s. owns a unique collection of collages. The compilation is continually expanded by the addition of new suitable items.
The collection focuses on Czech postwar collage, namely the most important and renown domestic artists for whom collage was the typical and principal means of expression. However, the collection includes works by artists who have used collage as a temporary or supplementary technique in addition to their main sculpting, painting, or graphic styles.
One of the impulses that prompted Pražská plynárenská to establish the collection was the Czech Collage Exhibition organized by the National Gallery in Prague in 1997.
Some of the recent additions to the collection were presented by Pražská plynárenská to the general public for the first time at an exhibition of selected collage works at Divadlo Bez Zábradlí in the spring of 2002.
The Pražská plynárenská collection includes varied objects d’art created during a period spanning more than a half century, unique examples of utmost quality, and inaccessible works of fundamental importance, in addition to lesser known or unknown works, and interesting rarities that bring creations often hidden from the public closer to art lovers.
“The Pražská plynárenská collection is a remarkable compilation unparalleled in the Czech Republic, thanks to its consistent focus on collage,” comments art historian Jiří Machalický. Today, the collection includes more than 200 exhibits, and its value would be difficult to express in monetary terms, because individual items are essentially irreplaceable.
The collection features works by Jiří Kolář, Ladislav Novák, Karek Trinkewitz, Adolf Hoffmeistr, Eduard Ovčáček, Libor Fára, Běla Kolářová, Čestmír Kafka, Josef Hampl, Věra Janoušková, Ivo Medek, Jaroslav Vožniak, Joska Skalník, and numerous other Czech artists.
“Plastic art collage is infinitely attractive for viewers. An artist uses discovered materials and exploits their aesthetic and semantic qualities. At the same time, he manipulates them, changes their original meaning, and puts them in a new context, where they convene and create new information, new qualities, and new messages,” explains art historian Marie Klimešová.
Gallery Space
An appropriate space has been found and leased to serve as the gallery space and a social gathering place. The premises are located in the basement and ground floor of the building at Ve Smečkách 24, which is owned by the Borough of Prague 1. Pražská plynárenská has renovated the property for the purposes of the gallery, resuscitating an originally beautiful, but derelict building in the center of the Czech capital, and presenting itself as a conscientious corporation that does not focus solely on its prosperity and development, but also spends considerable funds on accumulating, protecting, and supporting the Czech national culture, namely collage artwork created in the postwar period.
Considering the need for a flawless environment for the exhibited works, especially from the viewpoint of suitable air conditioning, heating, humidity control, lighting intensity, and overall security, the reconstruction project was submitted to National Gallery specialists before obtaining a building permit and selecting the contractor. The National Gallery’s recommendations were taken into account in the selection of the construction company and during the reconstruction work itself.
