One of the most picturesque buildings on the Kampa Island, the Sova water mill, rebuilt several times since it was first built in the Middle Ages, is home to the city’s most dynamic modern and contemporary art foundation. It houses many works by František Kupka, Otto Gutfreund and other contemporary Czech artists.
Elegantly and soberly renovated in a resolutely contemporary style, the building, far from being cut off from its surroundings, is wide open to the district and the river, with large glass windows, terraces filled with contemporary sculptures, and a large glass tower around which the exhibition rooms are arranged. This welcoming site is a wonderful invitation to discover the arts of our time.
Like many foundations, the Kampa Museum is the result of a beautiful story of commitment and artistic passion. It is the story of Meda Mládková, an art historian, protector of Czechoslovak artists during the communist period and passionate lover of contemporary art, who, from the United States, assembled a superb collection with her late husband Jan. This collection is now on show in Prague, in line with the couple’s wish to bring the richness of twentieth-century Czech culture to the attention of as many people as possible.
The two most prestigious fonds in this collection are those of František Kupka, the Czech avant-garde painter and pioneer of abstraction, and his contemporary Otto Gutfreund, one of the most important Czech sculptors of the 20th century, best known for his Cubist period. The works of the two artists are judiciously presented side by side in a most inspiring formal dialogue.
The permanent exhibition also provides an opportunity to discover contemporary art from Central Europe, particularly from the 1960s and 1970s, and the works of such diverse figures as René Roubíček, Václav Cígler, Aleš Veselý and Eva Kmentová.
The Kampa Museum continues to be committed to promoting contemporary art, and organises a number of temporary exhibitions focusing on new trends on the contemporary art scene in Central Europe.
Click here to see the current programme.
