The exhibition 20th-Century Czech Art and Its Labels presents labels that are used to define the chronology of 20th-century Czech art and are commonly found as chapter headings in art history publications: the Mařák School, sculpture, Symbolism, Cubism, Surrealism, Group 42, (un)official art in 1948–1989, the eighties generation, the 1990s. Each of these “boxes” represents a broader category (a school, an -ism, etc.), but they also define particular groups of works and artists and present us with different challenges.

The exhibition space Behind the Wall, which is part of the permanent exhibition 20th-Century Czech Art and Its Labels, is dedicated to artists who in 1948–1989 worked outside official structures of cultural policy – either on the underground scene or in the grey area overlooked by official institutions. They often created experimental works, action art, happenings or other intangible or temporary installations. Seen from today’s perspective, these works – created and shown “behind the walls” of studios, homes or weekend cottages – are some of the conceptually richest artistic documents of that era.

This intimate gallery space Na bidýlku II presents works by the youngest generation of artists, current students and art school graduates. Its name and mission recall the activities of the gallerist Karel Tutsch, whose collection was acquired by GMU in 2021.

Wish consists of two columns between which five steel cables are stretched. Letters of the alphabet hang from the cables, which visitors can manipulate to form various five-letter words in a vertical formation. The interactive installation encourages viewers to engage in literary playfulness or to leave a message for the next visitor. That visitor can in turn replace that message with their own, thus the content of the Wish is constantly changing.

The exhibition explores the phenomenon of artistic partnerships in the visual arts, meaning the relationship between married artists or life partners, with a focus on artists whose personal and artistic careers unfolded against the historical upheavals of the 20th century. The exhibition’s chronological arrangement traces the evolution of the various relationships and the partners’ changing status in the different social and political conditions. Their process of artistic creation was influenced by external circumstances and by small, personal, everyday stories.

The exhibition surface On the Wall, which is part of the permanent exhibition 20th-Century Czech Art and Its Labels, is dedicated to styles, motifs, groups and artists that have remained outside the mainstream narrative of modern art. These works document the multi-layered character of the era’s artistic production and remind us of the limitations of the art-historical “sieve” that all works of art must pass through before they can become a part of codified art history.

Lucie Rosenfeldová’s On The Management of Doubt (2014, part of the GMU collection of Moving Images) – the first of two videos in this exhibition – reflects a time when technology was seen as a model for self-management and self-improvement. Computers were predictable, and so could lay a stable grid over an increasingly unpredictable world. Coaching and therapy offered a rational, mechanistic approach to our personal and professional relationships and asked us to take responsibility for the things we put into the world and the results that came out. Ten years later the second video – a new collaboration between Lucie Rosenfeldová and Matěj Pavlík – tries to establish what has changed about the relationship between ourselves and the world we construct through technology. Our lives have become less predictable, while the systems we have for managing uncertainty – climate models, career plans or economic projections – are less effective. Chaos Therapy suggests that the management of doubt today no longer aims to eliminate uncertainty but instead, like the automatic drawings referenced in Pavlík’s new photographic prints, embraces the irrationality that was always part of culture and technology, overflowing the grid of predictability and embracing the things we can’t control.

Silence Falls presents a new series of paintings by Nikola Kopp Lourková in which silence becomes a place for concentration and gentle observation. The artist lets ordinary objects – chairs, apples, dishes, pins or parts of the body – emerge from soft, layered colours like memories rooted in personal experience. The motifs are more hinted at than depicted literally, as if slowly emerging from a hazy background. Kopp Lourková works with a delicate palette of pink, ochre and flesh tones, complemented by the use of more distinctive colour accents and subtly interrupted lines. In these paintings, silence is not emptiness but attention – a moment when the world shows itself in details that otherwise elude us.

Presented in the form of an open depository, the exhibition Vladimír Preclík’s Gift to the Hradec Králové Region includes all the works from a collection donated by the sculptor Vladimír Preclík (fifty-four works in total), supplemented by other works from the collection of the Gallery of Modern Art in Hradec Králové.

Hradec Králové’s Velké náměstí (Great Square) is currently dominated by cars. This large parking area in the historic city centre has been the scene of clashing opinions regarding the square’s current and future use. On the one hand are voices in favour of preserving parking and in support of car traffic, while on the other hand there is an interest in designing public space for people and their daily activities. Czech society has generally cherished its cars and placed them on an untouchable pedestal, but there is currently debate throughout the country as to whether public space should be more accommodating to people or to cars.