The Foundation's Art Collection

The collection is on long-term loan to Kunsthalle Praha. Browse the artworks on the institution's website. 

We are gradually building our collection as a representative set of works mapping Czech art form the early years of the 20th century to the present days. We are fascinated to see how these works of art reflect the feelings of hope and dejection of the 20th century, the fights for freedom and the new ways of thinking emerging from the quest of society and individuals to find their identity. 

Czech modern art has made significant contributions to European art. It has its own unique and unquestionable qualities, artists recognized around the globe and those not quite discovered yet.

The Foundation’s collection includes many works of world-class artists that add context to the main line of the Czech art collection.  The entire collection will be lent long-term to Kunsthalle Praha.

Emil Filla - “Head of Man with Pipe”
oil and sand on wood, 1915, 39 x 29 cm

Head of Man with Pipe was painted during Filla’s top creative period while living in Rotterdam.

Leading representative of Czech cubism Emil Filla experimented with the analytic decomposition of reality into structured cubist planes and facets to achieve an entirely distinctive, timeless and moldable expression accentuated by a carefully chiseled color scheme.

The painting has been reproduced and exhibited on numerous occasions.

Max Ernst - “Facilité”
oil on canvas, 1923–4, 65 x 54 cm

Facilité was painted in 1923–4, shortly before the publication of André Breton’s first “Surrealist Manifesto” where Surrealism was officially proclaimed as a movement.  By this time Ernst was fully settled among the avant-garde artists working in Paris, and was associated with the group gathered around the magazine Littérature, which included André Breton, Louis Aragon and Man Ray.

The first owner of Facilité was Joë Bousquet (1897–1950), an important collector of Surrealist art. Bousquet, a French poet, was wounded during the First World War and remained paralyzed for the rest of his life. This particular work hung above his bed in Carcassonne.

Facilité has been exhibited at many occasions, most recently at the Max Ernst exhibition in Stockholm in 2009.

Georges Kars - “Portrait of the Painter Utrillo”
oil on canvas, 1926, 65 x 24 cm

This painting of world-class significance is a highly representative portrait capturing Kars’s Parisian friend and colleague from the circles of École de Paris, the legendary artist Maurice Utrillo.

The painting has been exhibited on numerous occasions in various countries around the world and is widely reproduced in relation to presenting the works of Georges Kars and Maurice Utrillo.