The Museum of Art in Olomouc, which used to be called the Gallery of Fine Arts, was opened in 1951. It originally operated as part of the Regional Museum in Olomouc, but has been an independent institution since 1989. At present, the museum looks after an impressive collection of around 180,000 exhibits. The institution includes three branches: two archdiocesan museums in Olomouc and Kroměříž, and the Museum of Contemporary Art. The latter houses works by renowned Polish artists such as Magdalena Abakanowicz, Tadeusz Kantor and Alfred Lenica.

History of the collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art

The first permanent exhibition devoted to 20th century art in Olomouc was opened in 1954. Initially, the exhibition was based on loans from the National Gallery in Prague. The Gallery of Fine Arts began to build its own collection in the 1960s; through purchases and donations, it soon became the third largest public collection in the Czech Republic. Unfortunately, the development of the collection was interrupted by the occupation of Czechoslovakia by Warsaw Pact troops in 1968. During the communist period (until 1989), exhibitions were limited to local art and themes related to political and national ideology.

After 1989, as a result of political changes, the neglect of cultural infrastructure in Central Europe became apparent: in Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary. Changes in the functioning of museums and cultural centres focusing on contemporary art in these countries in the following decades also included the collection in Olomouc. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the museum's collection was moved to new premises in the historic centre of the city. With the opening of the collection to the public in 1993, the Gallery changed its name to the Museum of Art in Olomouc to emphasise its new, broad approach to visual culture.

Polish sculpture and painting at the Museum of Contemporary Art

In 2006, a branch of the Museum of Contemporary Art was inaugurated in an Art Nouveau building at 824/47 Denisova St. Since 2007, the museum has focused on presenting Central European art from the 20th and 21st centuries. There are almost 150 works on permanent display, including works by Polish artists created from the 1940s to the present day. You can see works by artists such as Kazimierz Mikulski, Tadeusz Kantor, Alfred Lenica, Janusz Przybylski, Ryszard Winiarski, Jerzy Ryszard Zieliński, Magdalena Abakanowicz and Włodzimierz Pawlak. Most of the Polish works were added to the collection between 2009 and 2012.

In addition, the Museum of Art in Olomouc is one of the organisers of the Václav Burian Poetry Prize, for which Polish poets and poets compete annually.