Prague, Dec 23 (CTK) – A new “Kunsthalle,” a gallery hosting short-term exhibitions of modern and contemporary art, is to be opened in Prague centre by The Pudil Family Foundation in 2019, its executive director Ivana Goossen has told CTK.
The gallery will be situated in the reconstructed building of the former transformer station from the 1930s in Klarov near the Vltava (Moldau) River.
The Pudil family wants to display primarily its own collection of the 20th- and 21st-century art as well as the works of supporters of the Kunsthalle Prague project.
The foundation was established by Petr Pudil, former owner of the Czech Coal company, and his wife Pavlina. They bought the transformer station in February and put their art collection into the foundation´s property.
The Kunsthalle Prague endowment was established in October.
“Kunsthalle Prague wants to be a leading art museum. In its programme, we plan quite small thematic exhibitions presenting exclusively the artifacts from the permanent collection,” Goossen said.
The project was inspired by a number of similar institutions in Central Europe, she added.
The Pudils would like to create a collection mapping the Czech plastic arts from the beginning of the 20th century up to the present, accompanied by foreign artists´ works, Goossen said without elaborating.
The Pudil foundation has not released detailed information about the collection and the gallery´s programme yet.
Its website mentions only three artifacts from the collection, including a painting by Emil Filla (1882-1953), A Man´s Head with a Pipe, that was auctioned off for 14 million crowns in the Kodl Gallery last year. This gallery´s owner is also involved in the new project.
The foundation is now looking for curators. It would like to cooperate with both internal and external curators and purchase some complete exhibitions from abroad as well, Goossen said.
The foundation supports other art projects, too. It has collaborated with the National Gallery and the Kampa Museum in Prague.
The foundation is to fund the reconstruction of the former transformer station from its own resources.
In the spring, the Property Klarov firm, owned by the foundation, planned to rebuild the transformer station into a hotel first.
The Culture Ministry is considering declaring the building cultural heritage.
However, the new owner, the Pudil Family Foundation, has scrapped the hotel project and wants the whole building to serve the purposes of the nascent non-profit cultural institution Kunsthalle Prague, Goossen said.
There are some other galleries in Prague working in the form of “kunsthalle,” such as the Rudolfinum Gallery, a state subsidised organisation of the Czech Philharmonic, and the DOX art centre.
($1=24.679 crowns)
