Prague, Feb 9 (CTK) – The most popular exhibition in the Czech Republic last year was the Czech-German project presenting the King of Bohemia and Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV (1316-1378) that attracted 92,857 visitors in four months, 692 a day on average, according to data from Art&Antiques magazine.
The exhibition on Charles IV and his era was held on the National Gallery’s premises in the Wallenstein Riding School in Prague on the occasion of his 700th birth anniversary.
The magazine released the analysis of exhibitions attendance in 2016 in its February issue.
A record high average number of visitors came to the Perception exhibition that was staged by architect Jan Sepka in the House of Arts in Ceske Budejovice, south Bohemia. A total of 36,000 people saw it in 24 days, which means 1500 a day on average.
However, the unusual display was free of charge, which also helped increase the attendance, along with its provocative character. The architect had a Baroque fountain on the main square surrounded with a high wall and it was accessible only on a suspension footbridge from the gallery’s window.
This daily attendance corresponds rather to the average overall attendance at one exhibition in the House of Arts in the past years.
Contemporary art exhibitions usually do not attract so many people in the Czech Republic as large displays focused on history, such as the project on Charles IV.
Out of the other NG projects in 2016, the second most visited was was the exhibition of French artist Henri Rousseau (1844-1910), the first in the Czech Republic, prepared in cooperation with the Musee d’Orsay in Paris. It was held in the NG’s Kinsky Palace in Old Town Square from last September until January and attracted a record number of 57,047 people, 464 a day.
As far as the total attendance is concerned, the exhibition of the Slav Epic series of giant paintings by Czech Art-Nouveau artist Alfons Mucha (1860-1939) was the most successful. It was seen by 119,675 people, 385 a day on average, in 2016.
However, this was a long-term display opened for almost five years.
Several other exhibitions in the country attracted tens of thousands of people last year, such as that of Czech-born surrealist artist Toyen (1902-1980) in the Kampa Museum (58,732 visitors) and of American graphic art in the National Gallery (34,567).
Another three exhibitions in the Kampa Museum attracted more than 20,000 people last year, along with the display entitled In New World: Conditions of Modernity 1917-1927 in the Art Gallery in Ostrava, north Moravia (330 a day) and Brave New World in Prague’s DOX Contemporary Art (233 a day).
The attendance at exhibitions in the Rudolfinum Gallery in Prague and the Moravian Gallery in Brno has increased year-on-year.
