Czech Cubism
A school you find nowhere else: Cubism applied to painting, furniture and architecture together — an original Czech contribution to modern art.
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Yes if modern art interests you: the Czech collection here exists nowhere else in the world, and the galleries are calm unlike the central museums. Twenty minutes by tram from the Old Town Square.
The gallery is spread across several sites: this one for modern and contemporary art, the Convent of St Agnes for medieval Gothic, the Schwarzenberg and Šternberk palaces for old masters. The combined pass covers them all.
The Czech 20th-century section — the most important and the hardest to see anywhere else. Take the lift straight to it and do not try to pass through everything.
The National Technical Museum, Letná park and the Metronome are all minutes away. Morning here, lunch in Holešovice, then sunset on the Letná edge.
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The Trade Fair Palace is a huge functionalist building from 1928, and is itself an important piece of architecture: one of the first large functionalist buildings anywhere, visited by Le Corbusier, who said he learned from it. Today it is the main home of the Czech National Gallery's modern and contemporary art, running over seven floors around a central atrium that cuts through the building from the ground to a glass roof. The collection is broader than visitors expect: the European section holds works by Picasso, Klimt, Schiele, Mondrian, Monet and Rodin, while the Czech 20th-century section is the internationally significant one — Czech Cubism, Symbolism, Surrealism, and works by Kupka, Filla and Štyrský, a school you can see whole only here. The building is large and tiring, so the practical advice is to pick two or three floors rather than attempt all of it. Start at the top and work down. Captions are in Czech and English, and a lift serves every floor. It stands near Letná park and the Technical Museum, so it slots easily into a Holešovice day away from the crowded centre.
A school you find nowhere else: Cubism applied to painting, furniture and architecture together — an original Czech contribution to modern art.
One of the pioneers of abstract art worldwide, with the largest collection of his work held here — reason enough on its own.
Picasso, Klimt, Schiele, Monet and Rodin in quiet, uncrowded rooms — a completely different experience from the museums of Paris or Vienna.
An open void cutting through seven floors to a glass roof — the building itself is a landmark in the history of modern architecture.
Dukelských hrdinů 47, Prague 7 — Holešovice