ART BRUT AND RELATED FORMS

Shortly after its establishment in the 1990s, the Olomouc Museum of Art focused on creating entirely new art collections. After 1990, it also began systematically building an Art Brut collection. A unique ensemble was formed through acquisitions and donations; since 1999, these acquired pieces have been integrated into exhibitions of professional art, which presented an extraordinary concept in the acquisition and exhibition practices of Czech galleries at the time.

Art Brut Collection 1990–2025

The Olomouc collection primarily focused on characteristic forms of art brut within the Czech environment, including remarkable expressions of mediumistic drawing. The curator Anežka Šimková was responsible for building the collection. By 2025, the Museum’s art brut collection comprised nearly three hundred works by approximately fifty authors—many of them anonymous—and was managed as part of the Drawing Collection. Chronologically, the collection spans the 20th and early 21st centuries. Its strongest and rarest section consists of mediumistic drawings, which represent a distinct cultural phenomenon of Bohemia, Moravia, and Silesia. These works are linked by spontaneity and an inner model of inspiration, but above all by the tradition of the widespread spiritualist movement from the late 19th to the mid-20th century. Within mediumistic art, there is a strong Silesian circle, represented by the drawings of Josef Kotzian. The Podkrkonoší (Giant Mountains) circle, where spiritualism was most deeply rooted, is represented by Adéla Ducháčová. The South Moravian circle is dominated by the well-known authors Cecilie Marková and Vlasta Kodríková.

Another group in the collection consists of authors affected by mental shifts and pressures, typical of most works categorized as art brut (e.g., Františka Kudelová, Marie Kodovská, Zbyněk Semerák). Of great significance is the body of work by the solitary artist Anna Zemánková, an Olomouc native, whose oeuvre now receives international acclaim as a remarkable part of the art history of the second half of the 20th century.

The Pavel Konečný Collection

In 2025, the Museum of Art succeeded in acquiring the private collection of the Olomouc-based collector Pavel Konečný, who is intensively dedicated to collecting and popularizing the work of figures from the circles of art brut and naïve art. The acquisition of this ensemble represents both a quantitative and qualitative expansion of the museum’s holdings and serves as an example of the evolution of private collecting. Since 2011, Pavel Konečný has organized the regular film festival Art Brut Film Olomouc in cooperation with the Museum.

He began collecting the artistic expressions of untrained creators in 1972; thus, his collection represents a cohesive body of work spanning more than fifty years. He focuses primarily on Czech and Slovak authors, and in recent years, also on Polish creators. His entire collection of 414 works features 77 authors, many of whom he discovered. These include creators of regional importance as well as internationally recognized figures such as Anna Zemánková, Cecilie Marková, Natálie Schmidtová, Marie Kodovská, Antonín Řehák, Zbyněk Semerák, Václav Beránek, Rudolf Dzurko, Leoš Wertheimer, Eva Droppová, and Polish authors Genowefa Magiera, Roman Rutkowski, Władysława Iwańska, Włodzimier Rosłon, and Julian Stręk.

Art Brut and Related Forms

Following the merger of the Pavel Konečný collection with the museum’s existing holdings, a separate, specialized collection titled “Art Brut and Related Forms” was established in 2025. This is a unique step among Czech state cultural institutions, as no similar collection had been formed until now. Simultaneously, it expands the boundaries of Czech art history, which—following international trends—is beginning to focus its scholarly interest on marginal and non-professional art. The Olomouc Museum of Art considers it essential to preserve these works, to expand the memory of this cultural phenomenon, and to document these rare sources of imagination and authenticity.