COLLECTION OF PhDr. JIŘÍ HLUŠIČKA

“When planning exhibitions of the Moravian Gallery, the awareness was applied that its collections could no longer be a closed treasury of values, but a living organism that, like every work of art, yearns for a dialogue with the perceiver.”

Jiří Hlušička: Ještě že mám zpočinky, Brno 2012, p. 80.

Jiří Hlušička (1929 Nový Bydžov – 2024 Brno), a Czech art historian, curator, theorist and art critic with a focus on Czech fine art of the twentieth century, combined his lifelong professional career with the Moravian Gallery in Brno, which he led for almost thirty years. Through his work, he significantly participated in the development of cultural and artistic events in the city and contributed to the international reputation and cultural significance of Brno with a number of activities. He was one of the significant figures in the history of Czech art of the twentieth century.

Hlušička developed his professional interest in Czech fine arts through his own arts and crafts education. He was originally trained as a typographer in a printing house in Liberec (1947) and then enrolled in the graphic arts department at the Higher School of Art and Industry in Brno (1947–1951), commonly known as the “šuřka”, which to some extent replaced university education in the post-war years and, thanks to the work of a number of excellent teachers, had an extraordinary level of arts and crafts education. Here, Hlušička acquired not only skills in fine and graphic art, but also knowledge of art history, which ultimately prevailed in his further study. In 1952–1957, he studied art history and aesthetics at the Brno Faculty of Arts, today’s Masaryk University, under Albert Kutal, Zdeněk Kudělka, Ivo Krsko, Václav Richter and Oleg Suse, in the field of aesthetics. Hlušička studied with a strong generation of future art historians and writers, with whom he maintained friendly and professional relationships throughout his career; they were, for example, Petr Spielmann, Karel Holešovský, Jaromír Zemina, and Věra Linhartová.

After graduating from school, Hlušička worked briefly as an assistant at the Department of History of Architecture and Ornamental Drawing at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the Faculty of Fine Arts of the Technical University of Brno, but two years later, in 1959, he won a competition for the position of head of the picture gallery of the Moravian Museum in Brno. In his new position, Hlušička primarily aimed to build and expand the collection of Czech interwar art and also to acquire new spatial facilities for the picture gallery. Thanks to Jiří Hlušička, in the early 1960s, the picture gallery was merged with the then Museum of Applied Arts in Brno into a new institution combining the field of artistic and applied art under the new name Moravian Gallery. From 1961 to 1989, he served as director there. Since the beginning of his work, he has managed to significantly expand and build the foundation of today's best parts of the gallery's collections, which include a number of essential paintings and sculptures of interwar modernism. He and his colleagues often acquired works of art directly from living artists, their family members, or from the estates of prominent collectors. In his memoirs, he mentions personal visits to Josef Šíma in Paris, to Jan Zrzavý, Jiří Kroha, Linka Procházková, František Foltýn, František Muzika, Vincenc Makovsky, contacts with the families of Otto Gutfreund, Josef Čapek, Emil Fillla, Rudolf Kremlička, and many others.

During Hlušička's tenure, a unique photographic collection was established at the Moravian Gallery (which was the focus of the long-time curator and employee of the Moravian Gallery, Antonín Dufek, throughout his professional career) and the tradition of the International Biennial of Applied Graphics was established, the creation of which was initiated in 1964 by graphic artist Jan Rajlich. Jiří Hlušička served as its general director until 1989. Thanks to the Biennial, Brno gained international renown as a city of design, where the results of the contemporary approach to graphic design from all over the world are presented.

During Hlušička's tenure, a unique photographic collection was established at the Moravian Gallery (which was the focus of the long-time curator and employee of the Moravian Gallery, Antonín Dufek, throughout his professional career) and the tradition of the International Biennial of Applied Graphics was established, the creation of which was initiated in 1964 by graphic artist Jan Rajlich. Jiří Hlušička served as its general director until 1989. Thanks to the Biennial, Brno gained international renown as a city of design, where the results of the contemporary approach to graphic design from all over the world are presented.

He was a member of the artistic council of the Ministry of Culture (1970–1973), the scientific councils of the National Gallery in Prague and the Slovak National Gallery in Bratislava. He wrote and published a number of art historical publications and art monographs, for example: Vincenc Makovský, Odeon 1979, František Foltýn, Odeon 1982, Michal Ranný, Odeon 1997, Emil Filla, Brno 2003, or Czech modern painting in the Moravian gallery in Brno (1920–1950), Brno 1989, The Hascoe Collection of Czech, Modern Art, Prague 2004.

He also continuously devoted himself to his own creative photographic work.

COLLECTION OF PhDr. EVA PETROVA

Eva Petrová (1930 Prague–2011 Prague) was a prominent Czech art historian, art critic, publicist, poet and collector. In her life, she connected the world of fine arts, poetry and cultural reflection into a unique personal synthesis. She was one of the most influential cultural figures of post-war Czechoslovakia.

She studied art history and aesthetics at the Faculty of Arts of Charles University in Prague. After her studies, she worked as a researcher at the Institute of Theory and History of Art of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences. During the period of normalization, she switched to a freelance career, where she devoted herself to exhibition activities, writing and drawing. She was the chairwoman of the art department of the Art Discussion, a member of the Hollar Association of Czech Graphic Artists, the PEN Club and the International Association of Art Critics AICA.

As a publicist and critic, she contributed to professional and literary magazines, such as Umění, Výtvarné umění, Ateliér, Výtvarná práce, Literární noviny or Kámen. In her texts, she focused on the development of Czech and European modern art, often with a special emphasis on expressiveness, artistic imagination and social context. Her key professional publications include, for example, the monograph Max Ernst (1965), the collection Two Centuries of Czech Caricature, the publication Výstávy v čase proměn (2009) and the catalogue Umělecká beseda 1863–2003. In addition to theoretical work, she also devoted herself to literature. Her poems were imbued with artistic imagery and a philosophical dimension, often inspired by works of art or cultural history.

Even after her death, Eva Petrová remains a significant figure in Czech culture – as a mediator of art, literature and cultural memory. Her work helped shape awareness of Czech fine art of the 20th century and the cultural heritage that still appeals to us today.

Throughout her life, Petrová not only analyzed and commented on fine art, but also collected it herself. The collection was also a personal statement about her relationship with art and the cultural environment in which she lived.

A significant part of her personal collection became the basis of the exhibition Mosaic of Small Joys, organized in 2016 at the Alš South Bohemian Gallery in České Budějovice. This collection included works by Czech artists with whom she was often connected by friendship and mutual inspiration – for example, František Gross, Jan Smetana, František Hudeček, Milan Grygar, Libor Fára or František Hodonský.

Another part of the collection is presented in this auction.