Dita Dvořáková

How (not) to Start an Art Museum: The Czechoslovak State Gallery (1921–1938)

In the current narrative of Czech art historiography, the State Gallery project is often portrayed as a failure, primarily remembered for the polemics and controversies it provoked among the interwar intellectual elite. In its own time, however, it represented a highly significant state initiative involving a number of key figures of the First Republic, including the architect Josef Gočár. The aim was to establish Prague as the capital of the new state, complete with the institutions expected of a modern European metropolis, including a major art museum akin to those that had been founded in Western European centres since the Enlightenment. The State Gallery was a flagship of Czechoslovak cultural policy — a tool for legitimising the young republic internationally and an attempt to democratise access to the cultural heritage. Planning for the new public art museum was closely linked to broader interwar efforts to develop state art collections. The project was shaped by a relatively closed circle of Prague’s political and intellectual elites, in which national minorities — especially Germans — were only symbolically represented. Within this group, decisionmaking processes were democratic: representatives of the relevant ministers consulted with artists, gallery professionals, independent art historians, and the wider expert community. Their goal was to create a building that reflected contemporary museological standards in terms of spatial organisation, technical equipment and exhibition design. However, the pursuit of consensus and perfection, compounded by the initial selection of an unsuitable building site and the financial constraints of the Great Depression, led to repeated delays. Negotiations over the State Gallery began in 1921 and dragged on until the end of the First Czechoslovak Republic. Construction finally commenced in 1939, only to be definitively halted by the German occupation authorities.

Author's email:

dvorakova@udu.cas.cz

DOI: https://doi.org/10.54759/ART-2025-0105



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