Black Madonna House – Museum of Czech cubism – National Gallery
(Dum U Cerné Matky Bozí – Muzeum ceského kubismu – Národní galerie (NG)) Ovocný trh 19, Praha 1 – Staré Mesto
Transport metro B, tram 5, 8, 14 / the name of the stop: Náměstí Republiky
Entrance fees:
From 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- BASIC 100 CZK
- REDUCED 50 CZK
- FAMILY 150 CZK
From 4 p.m.
- BASIC 50 CZK
- REDUCED 30 CZK
- FAMILY 80 CZK
Black Madonna House
Permanent exhibition Czech cubism (painting, sculpture, applied art, architecture) is located in the most prominent cubistic building of Prague built by the architect J. Gocár in the early 20th century.
The museum is situated in the centre of Prague, in an outstanding piece of Cubist architecture by Josef Gočár, the Black Madonna House, at the point where Celetná St. meets Ovocný trh. The house dating from 1911–12, designed for František Josef Herbst as a department store with a café on the first floor, is an example of how a modern building can sensitively be incorporated in the historical core of the Old Town. The fact that after the recent reconstruction its spaces have been assigned to the Museum of Czech Cubism owes to a brilliant decision by the Ministry of Culture. The exhibition was arranged by the National Gallery in Prague in collaboration with the Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague and the National Museum.
The exhibitions
The exhibition of Czech Cubism presented on the second and third floors of the Black Madonna House focuses on the years 1910–19, the most imporant stage of Cubism in the Czech lands. Painting is represented by the works of Emil Filla, Bohumil Kubišta, Vincenc Beneš, Josef Čapek, Antonín Procházka, Václav Špála, Jan Zrzavý, Otakar Nejedlý, and Otakar Kubín, while sculpture is the domain of Otto Gutfreund. The collection of paintings and sculptures was chosen from the holdings of the National Gallery in Prague and supplemented by a number of loans from galleries outside Prague and from private collectors. The Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague loaned the various pieces of furniture made from designs of the architects Pavel Janák, Josef Gočár and Vlastislav Hofman. Their architectural works, along with documents of Josef Chochol’s works, are shown in a number of photos and two models: Gočár’s Black Madonna House and Chochol’s tenement house in Neklanova St. in Prague. It is the Czech Cubist architecture dating from the years before World War I that is quite unique and cannot be found anywhere else in Europe. Samples of applied art were also loaned by the Museum of Decorative Arts. The exhibited ceramic items were executed from the designs by Pavel Janák, Vlastislav Hofman and Jaroslav Horejc, while the glass was designed by Josef Rosipal and posters present the works of Jaroslav Benda, V. H. Brunner and Václav Špála.
Exhibits on the fourth floor include drawings and prints by all the earlier mentioned artists. In an interesting way, they are also complemented with items of African sculpture, whose simplified and succintly expressed forms fascinated not only Emil Filla when he visited the Trocadéro in Paris in 1912, but also other Czech artists, and considerably influenced the forming of their Cubist views. The exhibited collection is rounded off with a number of documents, photos, reproductions of archival material and references to literature on Czech Cubism, which classified it within a wider context.
The Black Madonna House project counts on providing space for short-term exhibitions on the fifth floor, where also instruction programmes will take place. The instruction department of the National Gallery in Prague has prepared extensive accompanying programmes for schools and individuals.
A longer-term prospect also counts on reconstruction of Gočár’s interior of the café which had been abolished following the changed use of the former department store. The café will doubtless make a sought-after place of social encounters in the centre of the Old Town.
Opening hours
- January – December 10 – 18 Tuesday – Sunday
free entry on first Wednesdays of the month (15 – 20)
News in Prague
short navigation:
